Wayward Journeys
by Barrour
Summary: The Yggdrasil ended slightly differently and now Momonga might be alone in the new world. And yet maybe not. [Momonga was outside Nazarick fic, No OC]
1. Prologue

**Wayward Journeys.**

 **Had several ideas come into my mind after reading several other fics. Trying to write them down now.**

 **Overlord Light Novel series, manga series and anime series do not belong to me.**

[Spells]

"Speech"

 _"Chat/Message"_

 ** _"Various pop-up widows or texts"_**

* * *

 **The Prologue.**

We all know how these tales start: World on the edge of its end, Guild on its last legs, Players on the last shreds of their enthusiasm. Yet this time, that enthusiasm and loyalty to the game and the guild were shared by more than one player…

" _You know, for what it's worth, despite all the arguments we had, the guild had a really good run"_

A lone figure could be seen in the middle of the throne room of Great Tomb of Nazarick. One of the last active members of the Ainz Ooal Gown: Momonga, greatest undead mage with the appearance of a Skeleton and the Guild Master, who was currently using [Message] spell, an in-game version of private messages to communicate with his two last comrades: Ulbert Alain Odle known as Demon of Great Disaster, with the appearance of goat-like demon and Touch Me, the World Champion.

" _Yeah, I only wish more would show up for the last day…"_ Momonga lamented.

The atmosphere shared between the three people in the private chat could best be described as bittersweet, yet content with the guild still staying at the top of the ranking, despite majority of its members not showing up for quite a while. It was trough the effort of these players that the guild base upkeep was still payed and treasury kept being restocked and even extended from various events and activities one could perform without large party, where they could cover the numbers with the sheer skill, levels and equipment.

Even now, right before the end of the YGGDRASIL these three were performing the raids and item collections, especially now that they had nothing to lose.

" _Okay, I've spotted these guys, they are definitely planning to raid Nazarick"_ Sent Ulbert.

Unfortunately, they were not the only ones ready to risk everything on the last day to have some fun. After the remnants of Ainz Ooal Gown harassed several smaller guilds, they brought all the new loot back into the Tomb. However, almost every medium-to-high level Player knew who Ainz Ooal Gown were and where their base is meant to be located. So, now Momonga, Ulbert and Touch-Me were preparing to mount the defense of the higher Floors of the Tomb.

" _Alright, hurry back here Momonga-san, we better counterattack them before they could assemble and buff themselves_ " Sent Touch Me. While the Ainz Ooal Gown had the ability to just wait out the raid within the impenetrable defenses of the Tomb, they were also a prideful guild. They have been PK-ing for years and were almost in equal standing as the antagonists of the game as the official last boss in many Players' minds. They would not back off now, since the end was nigh.

Still, it didn't mean they would approach the coming battle by stupidly waiting for the enemy to utilize their numerical advantage. Instead, the Three have planned to disrupt the attack by eliminating the smaller enemy groups with the lightning fast raids where their comparable numbers and AOG superiority of equipment and skill would prove victorious.

And so, while Touch Me and Ulbert were observing the enemy, Momonga was slowly bringing out some of the Guild's best equipment for the defenders to utilize. Normally he would be reluctant to just callously take the Items which were meant to be shared among the Guild, but Touch Me and Ulbert were confident their missing members would be glad if their combined resources could be used in the Guild's final Blaze of Glory.

"So, guys, I've brought everything I could stuff into my inventory" Momonga said when he approached his friends.

"Good, hopefully this would be enough to pull the Punitto Moe Maneuver" answered Ulbert turning away from his scrying spells.

They were decked out in all Divine Item gear and were packing every Cash Item they could think of for this battle.

"It's roughly one hour, twenty minutes till the servers Shut Down." A mere blink on a normal day within the game, but it could be terrifyingly long when your plan is to stall for time while actively engaging hostile players.

"They will move soon, we should start too."

Ulbert and Touch Me were capable of insane DPS when they put their minds into it. Momonga while being also level 100 Player, had an RP build that was not meant to be efficient or used for high-tier PVP. But he had a full set of Divine gear and could be considered a dangerous Wild Card.

They have approached a group of players who they knew were approximately in lvl 60-70 range under the effects of [Scroll of Perfect Unknowable]. They were not shying the use of consumables for this battle as they had an entire warehouse of those in the Tomb.

Clash was opened by Ulbert's AOE fire magic that managed to hit the entire enemy party with Splash Damage. Seconds later Touch Me was charging the Mage of the group while Momonga Summoned several Death Knights to cover him and the Devil. Poor bastards were stuck between the hammer and the anvil. Each of remaining the Ainz Ooal Gown members could lose only to few lvl 100 players in a pitched fight like that, these small fries had little chance. A first victory, among many coming battles. They still had 1 hour, 17 minutes and several more vulnerable targets to go.

* * *

" _Very well, we are waiting"_ Han$, the leader of what was left of the small Clan called Special Squadron was conversing with the other Clan leaders over the private chat. Unlike that famous massive raid on Nazarick that happened in the past, this one was a spontaneous gathering of several Clans and Guilds in reaction to the activities of Ainz Ooal Gown all over the Helheim and Vanaheimr. The result was, they were not well organized and while some arrived to the outskirts of Nazarick within minutes of the Crusade being called, others were still only making way to the Tomb.

"Let's see how these heteromorphs deal with a hundred of pro PVP players." He had a good feeling about their chances.

"Ehm…Han$..." one of his Clan members called out to him "Han$, I've just noticed something"

"These Ainz Ooal Gown are All cowards…" Han$ said while looking into the darkness.

"Have you looked at our raid chat recently?"

"Our chat?"

"The group picture of our raid chat, have you looked at it?"

"What?" What the hell was he talking about? "No… A bit?"

"It has skulls on it"

"?"

"Have you noticed that our chat actually has a picture of skulls on it?"

When he did think about, it was a weird thing to put on the chat emblem.

"I don't… really…"

"Han$, are we the baddies?"

When Han$ tried to answer that, his vision was suddenly engulfed in black flame. A warrior in Silver looking armor leapt out from the darkness and skewered the group's ranger while several Death Knights started fighting the healer of the team. Han$ was losing HP really fast and tried to disengage. Last thing he heard was [Grasp Heart]. His vision darkened and red letters were that said "YOU DIED" were hanging right in front of his eyes.

* * *

They made short work of the low-level groups around the Tomb. It seems that Punitto Moe Maneuver was still a successful tactic when dealing with disunited masses of the enemies. Better off, their intelligence spells showed that there were other group fights happening all over the place. It looked like several heteromorph Clans and Guilds have decided to interfere into the raid as volunteer defenders or as a third side in the last big PVP battle that would happen in the Game, ever. Good, more confusion and defenders to stand between the enemy and Nazarick.

For an hour there were more sporadic clashes and skirmishes between various clans and guilds all around the Nazarick. Mercenaries were hired, NPCs were summoned, people would die and come back for more fight until they lost much of their gear and combat prowess until they would rage-quit from game. There was probably not a single neutral Mob still standing for hundreds of miles around the Nazarick as attacks and spells flying all around them would trigger them to join the fray and die.

Soon the divide between groups on the outskirts of the Tomb shifted and now people were there just because they knew someone else was. The place was littered with Player corpses since many just left the game without resurrecting or waited for any friendly healers to come and raise them.

Momonga utilized this well, for he was using the Player corpses and his skill [Dark Wisdom] to learn new spells. Most of the thing he picked up he chose just because it would theoretically complement the spells he already had or because they fit his theme of necromancer and master of magic.

" _Momonga-san where are you, there is a free-for-all showdown between several people happening in the forest, I need your assistance to disrupt it"_ Touch-san sent into the group chat.

" _There is also some interesting movement happening around the swamps to the north, some traders, merchants and a bunch of low-level scum have made a small camp right at the edge of the battle, I propose we pay them… eh how do you call it?"_ Ulbert also stated talking.

" _A vis~"_

" _A beating, right! Let's pay them a beating!"_

Ulbert was likely making the alternative just to counter Touch Me's proposal.

They all separated after one of the larger clashes, Ulbert chasing some poor terrified healer angel and Sebas fighting a glorious duel with some neutral blade master Player. Momonga meanwhile decided to look for more corpses to utilize.

As he was about to head off to the areas he hadn't checked before, he was hit with some sort of chain entangling skill.

" _GUYS I'm being killed here, help!"_ Momonga said while instantly blinking few meters to his right.

Momonga saw how someone instantly used ability [Furious Charge] and rushed towards him. The moment he closed in, he used [Master Cleave] and struck out with his sword.

Only to hit nothing.

[Grasp Heart]

The moment enemy Warrior heard the spell he raised his shield to block it, but this type of magic dealt debuffs and damage even if resisted partially. Still the way he reacted was almost if some sort of sixth sense told him where the attack would come from. It came from above.

Human Warrior glanced up. Momonga was hanging from the tree with one hand and used the other to hurl the spell.

"Clever" the Player praised. Then, he shot up towards the branch.

The power of [The Heroic Leap] slammed him right into Momonga and two of them fell back to the floor. While the Warrior seemed like a swordsman build, he had many various warrior abilities besides that and had decent physical form as well as some knowledge of martial arts IRL. So instead of trying to stand up and slash at the Overlord, he simply lashed out with a kick while lying on the ground with his back.

That sent the Momonga right into the opposite part of the small clearing they fought in. Now, the enemy realized his error. While he prepared to use [Furious Charge], Momonga struck out again: "That hurt, [Napalm]".

The pillar of flame engulfed the Human, dealing damage and most importantly, blocking his eyesight. When he leaped out of the flame, he noticed that Momonga was chanting another spell

"[Chain Dragon Lighting]" The dragon-looking lighting rushed towards the Human and snaked its way around his shield, which he used to parry spells, before electrocuting the warrior. Damage from the hits was quite tolerable, but unexpectedly high, from non-arcane focused mage.

He rushed again, but instead of using [Furious Charge] that did no damage by itself, he used [Shield Charge] which had less range but dealt some damage and a knockback effect. Before Momonga could [Blink] again, he was hit with the shield and slammed back into the tree. The warrior used their positions to press Momonga into the wall, while also hitting him with the hilt of the sword right into forehead. While it was almost useless normally, being hit with the pommel counted as bludgeon damage.

"[Storm Cloak]" suddenly, Overlords body was engulfed in small lightings, which lashed out around him. Due to physical contact between him and the shield, Warrior started receiving quite a deal of damage, but the worst part was [Shock] effect that made it harder for him to do anything.

Still, it left Momonga being locked between the shield and the tree. So, he had to get out of this position - "[Arcane Blast]" - this spell did not have too much firepower, especially compared to some magics that Ulbert knew, but it had a huge knockback power.

While the Warrior was flying back. Momonga used a cash item to cast [Greater Lethal] on himself, replenishing his own HP. Now was the time to counterattack.

Momonga glanced at the warrior. It seems his opponent was in his lower 70–s or higher 60-s and had really poor gear. No wonder he barely dealt the level cap, Divine Item clad Overlord any damage while being in the melee range so long. Now, it was time to instill fear of Ainz Ooal Gown into the bastard. He Summoned a Death Knight, one of the two last ones for his current day limit.

Death Knight charged, Warrior did so too. Momonga glanced at the clock, it was 23:58 a last duel in the game, he could hear some phrases from Touch Me and Ulbert in the group chat but his beating heart and PVP mindset blocked it out, he would just chat up with them when it is over.

Two minutes… time to go all out.

He cast [Maximize Magic: Time Stop] this should overwhelm whatever pathetic time stop countermeasures the human has. Then Momonga did a [Delay Magic] curse combo that would put [Slowed Down], [Blinded], [Exhausted] and [Bleeding Out] debuffs the poor sap. Then he started chanting.

The moment the Time Stop ended, the warrior slammed into the Death Knight and performed a [Twohanded Cleave] and [Vicious Kick] combo. However, the Death Knight still has one last HP that he used to bash the warrior with the shield and start slashing. Then warrior was hit with an array of curses. He could barely operate the character with so many debuffs. However, he could see his remaining HP being chipped away by the summon. Then he suddenly saw [Burning] debuff add to the long list he already had. Then his HP plummeted to 0. _**[YOU DIED].**_

Momonga has won, he felt like a god in moments like these. He hastily used [Dark Wisdom] on the corpse and seen some another small spell being added to his list. But when he tried to open the menu, it didn't. In fact, the whole UI was gone. In fact, swamp was gone too. Where is he?


	2. Why Protect, when You can Prevent?

**Why Protect, when You can Prevent?**

 **Overlord does not belong to me.**

* * *

Momonga couldn't believe it. Yggdrasil UI was completely gone, menus didn't open, clock, mini-map and character screen were gone. Even debug console wouldn't open. He tried to [Message] GMs, but when he found out he could not do that without the game interface, he suddenly _remembered_ how to use magic. Still when that did not yield results, he attempted to somehow disconnect from the server or just to quit the game altogether, but it all failed. Yggdrasil has frozen.

Momonga looked around him. He was still in the forest, but this forest looked far different from the swampy forests that covered the surface of Helheim. Trees looked green and healthy while the ones on Helheim were all sickly, corrupted by the poisonous swamps, especially the ones close to Nazarick. Suddenly he noticed that the corpse of the Warrior he killed by using [Fallen Down] was gone. In fact, even the land where Momonga stood looked different. It was green with grass and somewhat solid soil, looked perfectly realistic as if someone took a high-res photo of the place, not procedurally generated swamps and dirt that he saw just a few seconds ago.

"No matter, this isn't the time Satoru" He muttered to himself.

" _Ulbert, Touch Me, can you hear me?"_ even if Yggdrasil itself was stuck, his voice chat app should be running on the background.

" _Guys? Can you hear me, I think my game glitched? I can't log out!"_ Momonga desperately asked.

He was met with only silence. There was no-one he could ask for help. Was this and unintentional glitch that happened to the whole server, or just to him? Or was it something completely different, like a secret demo of Yggdrasil 2? Momonga didn't know. He was confused by this whole situation. On one hand he desperately didn't want the game to end. On the other hand, he didn't want to be stuck in some dive-gamers' purgatory without he ability to quit or contact his friends.

Still, there was only one way to find out what was happening. He used a [Fly] spell to soar into the sky. What he saw surprised him greatly. It seemed it was night wherever he was, probably midnight like Yggdrasil standard time. Despite the lack of light sources except stars and the moon, he could see well even within the confines of the forest, probably his [Dark Vision] kicking in.

In every direction the Overlord looked, he saw only forest. There were no huge skyscrapers or mega factories like IRL. Sky was also clear and the beautiful arrangement of stars made him stare for a few minutes. But then, he snapped out of it. First, he would find some clue to where he was. If it was still Yggdrasil, he should try to return to Nazarick, it could be easier if he took his ring of Ainz Ooal Gown with him, but well. If not, Momonga would have to find out why he was here. And so, his flight over this mysterious new forest begun.

It took him several hours and a lot of [Fly] spell renewals to spot some sign of civilization. It looked like a small village. There was almost no illumination, but he could spot some bonfires in the middle of what he assumed was village's central square. For that he managed o figure out that some of the shadows had form of houses, though most of the houses looked really disheveled, if not abandoned. Still, buildings around the square were still intact and bonfires seemed to show that someone lived there.

Momonga slowly glided down to land near the edge of the village. He wasn't sure if this village was inhabited with Mobs, NPCs or maybe even Players. It was a dangerous thing in itself, as most positive karma NPCs and Mobs would just attack negative karma Players like him straight away and higher-level Players would see him as a potential source of great loot. Even if he did repel them, enemies could call in reinforcements to slowly surround him while he had no idea where he was. From what he saw of he architecture, the village was styled like medieval European ones he saw in some history books, so probability of it being human or humanoid species was fairly high. Still, there was nothing else aside from trees for miles around here and Momonga had no intention of just mindlessly wandering in the woods again. He cast [Perfect Unknowable] on himself and proceeded into the village.

As the Overlord was slowly making his way through the "streets", which were just same patches of land and dirt as the rest of the village proper, but with all the grass stomped out, he could not avoid noticing that there was a lot of stuff just laying around on the ground abandoned. Pieces of glass here, a shoe there, something that looked like a broken crate some meters away. Coupled with the abandoned look of the outer buildings, he wondered if this place was meant to look like it was hit with some natural disaster not too long ago.

He wondered how the wood structures reacted to tornadoes and earthquakes, all the buildings Suzuki Satoru ever seen were made out of concrete, steel and glass. He approached one of the houses and touched the wooden wall. Momonga already knew that his senses of touch and smell have dulled, when he barely felt the wind against his "face" while he was flying at high speeds.

Then he noticed something. These were not merely abandoned buildings. What he assumed was dirt, moss and fungi was actually charred wood. The houses were burned down. He hurried his progress through the village. There were no one in sight still but he was approaching the square. Then, he saw something to his left. It was a pile of bodies.

They were piled on top of each other and ten burned. Most looked like skeletons but several still had charred flesh attached to the bones. This was no natural disaster that ruined the village. What the hell did he get himself into?

* * *

 **Redon Village, ten hours earlier.**

Around the fortress city of E-Rantel, on the edges of Re-Estize Kingdom's territory multiple small villages have been located. These villages, while often poor due to them being on the outer frontier of the Kingdom, had one small advantage – they belonged directly to the Crown. As such, their taxes were generally stable, they were rarely directly abused by their landlords and even conscription demands for the Royal Army were somewhat reasonable here, unlike many places where nobles could do whatever they wanted to their peasants.

However, today this status as the property of the Crown became the downfall this poor small village. If one could somehow gaze at the Redon from above, the picture they would see could only be described as nightmarish:

Fully armoured knights were swinging their longswords at the villagers, who were dressed in rough clothes. Houses were set on fire left and right. Young women were dragged into the untouched buildings houses for some of the more perverted knight's entertainment, while their parents could only struggle in horror and desperation before being killed off.

It was a massacre. A random peasant fell with every swing of a knight's sword. The villagers could not resist them, and could only attempt to run away. However, this only allowed some of the mounted knight to use them as training for cavalry charge or horseback archery. Few of the "spared" villagers were tied on the square where they could only watch how their friends, property and ever relatives were being taken away from them all around.

In the middle of the village square stood a knight with even better-looking armor, who carried himself as if he was superior to everyone else in that place.

"Hmmm… even a few silver coins, not bad for a shit hole like this. Still quite pathetic if you look at the prices in the Capital" the Knight muttered. That was Captain Belius. He was busy evaluating the loot he and his knights have amassed all around from the village before putting most houses to the flame. While the place was poor, the population still had some money, wine and food that the knights could enjoy before setting off to destroy next village on the road.

"It is already late afternoon; this place sure did take quite a bit of time to manage. We will camp here and move out at the morning, let's enjoy our stay here in the meantime."

Combining pleasure and work was one of the few skills Belius possessed. He was in service for the perks their nation provided to the retired soldiers and his family wealth allowed him to land an officer position without too much trouble. If it meant a solid part of the loot and first choice of an entertainment girl, all the better.

* * *

Momonga slowly approached the square. Honestly, now he wished he never saw this village when flying around. In the middle of the square were multiple armoured warriors. Some assembled around the bonfires, some slept on their sleeping packs on the ground while some were waiting in line to get into one of the few standing buildings.

There were several peasant looking people tied to the poles near the edge of the square. They were guarded by a half a dozen of soldiers. Some meters off, Momonga could see horses tied to smaller wooded poles. It seems that most soldiers were mounted and with their armour, they could easily be called knights.

It seems these knights have raided the village and slaughtered most of the inhabitants. This was one hell of a way to introduce a player into the instance or a quest line, thought Momonga. Now he was only interested why did these knights were all queuing up around the still intact buildings.

Then, he got his answer. Two knights emerged from the building carrying a figure. It was a woman, probably middle aged, but she had quite a good figure. He could tell that because she was naked. Her condition told him that she was abused in the most horrible way.

"Sorry folks, this one passed away. Try your luck with the others" one of the knights who carried the woman said with a nonchalant tone.

What Satoru felt at that moment was hard to describe. It was like burning anger, but not for the destruction of so many lives. It was like more general anger at the way how easily this knight and his fellows disregarded life. It reminded how Humanoid Players disregarded heteromorphs in Yggdrasil, how many politicians and mega corporations IRL disregarded the lives of their people.

He aimed a hand at the square and initiated a spell. [Maximize Magic: Napalm]

* * *

Londes Di Gelanpo had probably cursed his gods more times in the past two hours than he had in the rest of his life. If the gods really did exist, then they should let him leave the post he was assigned to right now. Londes was a faithful man — why had the gods forced him to end up on the guard duty while the rest of the unit were having fun in the village? All previous raids they carried out without lingering too much, so he only had a small share of the spoils. Now he had to look over a bunch of tied up, terrified villagers. Even if they could escape what could they do? They would only make a few steps before the rest of his comrades noticed and killed the bastards. His luck sure sucked today. And then, there was a flash of light. Londes saw all the remaining buildings and most of the unit nearly instantly catch on fire. Then he was hit with the shock wave such as sudden change in temperature would cause and fell on his back. He was furthest from the square so he only felt the heat from the displaced air. Huh, maybe his luck didn't suck too much.

Still, no need to rest on his laurels, now that his life was still in danger. He slightly perked up and looked around. The square was pretty much ash at this point, so were the most of his comrades.

In fact, the prisoners too, now that he looked at them, his armour had slight enchantments, combined with the distance and presence of few other guys who got the guard duty absorbed most of the heat heading his way. The horses were running away from this place, the explosion and fear allowed them to break their ropes. He saw several other survivors who were out of the square taking a piss, or just milling around in less occupied parts of the village.

Then, he saw a dark figure, it wore an intricately created black robe, and it resembled an incarnation of death, born from the darkness of another world. And Elder Lich. Its skull turned in his direction and Londes felt all the courage drain away from him. Suddenly there was a shout.

"What are you doing you fools? Close in! Prevent it from casting any spells! Attack you bastards!" it was Captain Belius. Londes was honestly surprised that the man survived the firestorm. He was probably away from the square when they were hit. Still, that combined with his words from before almost made him look like a decent officer. Almost, if not for the hysteria that was heard in his voice and the fact that he was trying to crawl away while giving out the commands.

Still, the orders made several knights shake off their dread and charge the Lich. They might not have been the most elite unit, but they were trained in how to counter the undead and magic casters. So, they just needed to apply both to Lich.

At least that was the hope until they were suddenly hit with horrible feeling of Despair. Londes saw several knights collapse outright, their faces blue as if they chocked to death.

Even Belius shut up finally. That actually distracted Londes and he glanced at their "Captain", he looked dead. Then undead raised its hand towards the corpse of poor bastard.

"[Create Middle Tier Undead, Death Knight]"

A cloud of black fog appeared. The cloud headed straight for the body of the fallen Captain. Fog engulfed the body and then it rose, slowly dripping with some black ooze. When ooze cleared, instead of the hardly imposing Captain stood an undead that looked like an avatar of pure brutality.

"What did he do to poor Belius?!" someone asked.

"Belius huh?" The Lich answered. "Well then, _Belius_ , cripple one of these knights and kill the rest. Hearing that sentence, Londes simply collapsed from terror.

* * *

Momonga honestly did not intend to do things the way they happened. He assumed these fools similar to the Warrior he fought earlier, based on how their armour looked similar. So, his outburst was merely meant to punish the nonchalant knight and when realised what he has done, quite abruptly actually, almost as if someone just turned off his anger, he already launched the spell.

Still, it did kill of most of the knights, which means they were all really low-level trash. He even used [Despair Aura V] in his attempt to ward of melee attack these knights could have attempted. He was greatly surprised when the Instant Death effect from [Despair Aura V] triggered several times in a row, killing a bunch of people. Only more evidence to shitty build and gear.

Then when he saw that Aura was working and gave him some time, he instantly used his last charge of the [Create Middle Tier Undead] skill for today to make himself a meat shield. He should have not bothered, Death Knight or how his friends called him, _Belius_ , easily slaughtered the rest of these fools. He tried to interrogate the last one, but the knight, _Londes_ , barely could say much before dying form heart attack.

Well, at least he managed to get general idea of where he was. First of all, it was not Yggdrasil 1 or 2, as the things he saw in that village: gore, blood, nakedness, references to sexual abuse, was far beyond even what shitty devs could pull for their sequel. Two, his skills worked differently as his Create Undead skill actually used a corpse to summon Belius. And last, now he knew where he geographically was. Now he knew where to go to look for answers - Closest city of the Re-Estize Kingdom, E-Rantel.

* * *

Nigun Grid Luin, the captain of Slane Theocracy's Sunlight Scripture was not a happy man. Today his trap for Gazef Stronoff, the strongest mortal warrior within the Kingdom was supposed to be sprung and this tiring mission would finally be over. Or so he thought when his agents told how Gazef was gaining on the knights he sent to raid villages of the frontier. Today, the knights were meant to ride out from the ruined Redon Village and reach Carne Village by the early afternoon, where they would be caught by the Warrior-Captain and his comrades in the middle of the massacre. Then Sunlight Scripture would have trapped Gazef in the village and killed him with the rest of these peasants. However, the knights never left Redon Village. It was torched, as usual and all the villagers were dead, as expected. What was not expected is for the knights to end up the same way.

"Sir these corpses have no sign of external trauma, it is as if they just stopped breathing, the rest at least were burned or cut, but these are completely weird" one of his subordinates said. There were however ways to kill a person without dealing any traumas, many assassins knew that.

"Wait a minute…" Nigun suddenly said, he looked at the corpses once again with squinted eyes. Then he suddenly looked up "Prepare to withdraw".

"Excuse me, sir?" Some other agent asked.

"Don't you see it? The untouched corpses are most likely a work of some trained assassins, the burned knights were obviously hit with powerful magic, the mangled bodies were hit with huge physical force and these cuts were made with an unholy sword. Who could suddenly attack a group of knights with these characteristics, just when the King got involved?" Nigun asked his subordinates.

"Blue Rose!" on of the men responded.

"Yes, and we heard they have ties to the Golden Princess, she could have hired them to help the underequipped Gazef!" Nigun was fuming already "We have to pull out".

"But the orders, this is our best chance!" some of the more stalwart subordinates said.

"We don't have a bait anymore, if we attacked Carne by ourselves, we could tip off Gazef before he committed to stopping us. If Blue Rose and that damn woman are indeed here, together they could wipe us out!" He repeated himself the last time "Prepare to withdraw."

It seemed that the small village would be spared, for now.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **So Yeah, my story would go off the rails win some ways, but stay within the similar course of Ainz' (Or here, Momonga's) scope of activities. For now at least.**

 **Also, why Redon? What happed to the Battle of Carne. Well, you see, in canon Momonga spends some time talking with Guradians, freaking out and trying to use the Mirror of Remote Viewing. That's gotta be at least few hours of activity, maybe even a day. Only then he left the Tomb. In this fic I put him on the surface alone straight away, He would have to look at the New World with his own eyes outright from first minutes. The canon says that Gazef visited burned villages when chasing he knights. So if they were interrupted, the whole battle would have been averted, thus : Why Protect, when you can Prevent?**


	3. Point of Divergence

**The Point of Divergence**

 **I do not own Overlord**

* * *

Gazef Stronoff and his warrior band has reached yet another destroyed village. This village, which name he didn't know was even in worse shape than the previous ones. The central square was completely ruined, buildings and what looked like human remains were turned to ash. Previous ones at least had some "survivors" who were spared by the Knights and most buildings were just torched. This village was a different story however. It is as if some firestorm started from the center and then spread over the rest of the buildings. Further out, at the fringes of the village he spotted a pile of half burned bodies. Maybe these people were killed later on and Knights didn't have enough oil to burn them properly. Probably because they wasted it all on the square.

Gazef and his subordinates have been sent from the capital as a response to rumors of Imperial activity on the border between two nations and ended up chasing the apparent Imperial Knights who were said to burn down the frontiers of Re-Estize Kingdom for a while now. But never before he saw them go all out in terms of wiping out the King's peasants. This could be some sort of a sign to King Rampossa from the Bloody Emperor. Or it could be meant for Gazef himself. _You can't stop us -_ was the message.

"This is a trap isn't it, Stronoff-sama" Vice-Captain of the band asked the moment two of them were far enough from the rest of their men.

The attack happened precisely after he and his men have arrived at E-Rantel. Thinking about the brutality of the attack, it could be meant to trigger a reckless response from Gazef to lure him into the battle he couldn't win. If one were to also consider the fact that Noble faction's political maneuvering resulted in him being under equipped, the probability of this all being an elaborate trap was fairly high.

But as any good trap, this situation didn't have an exit where Gazef wouldn't be harmed. If King didn't send Gazef, nobles would have declared it as a sign of weakness from the Crown. The Royal faction's influence would have been reduced and they would be one step closer to collapse. And there was a good reason to send exactly Gazef instead of some other force. The Imperial Knights were professional soldiers who were trained and equipped by the Baharuth Empire. They outperformed Kingdom's peasant recruits in every battle scenario. The only analogue the Re-Estize Kingdom has were Gazef's warrior band and some of the Great Nobles' personal guards. Obviously, King Rampossa could not command any noble to send their personal guard to protect his own lands. So, if the Kingdom was to react, Gazef had to go.

"Yes, it probably is a trap" He decided to answer his subordinate's question.

"But even then, you want to continue?" Vice-Captain asked him with disapproval in his voice. "While I might sound cold hearted right now, but you also know this right Stronoff-sama. The lives of these peasants are not worth yours" It was true to a degree. Kingdom lost thousands of people to starvation, disease, monster attacks and annual clashes with the Empire. Few hundred more lost to the Knight raids would hardly change things in the big picture. The only important loss would have been the influence, but there are ways to regain it. Still...

"Do you remember how The Way of the Sword starts? It says: _if the road is harsh, it is only natural to take your sword and help._ How could I call myself a Warrior-Captain of Re-Estize Kingdom if I ignored the very teaching that allowed me to gain my strength? If I abandoned these people to their fate?" Gazef rebuked lightly.

 _ **The Way of the Sword**_ was an ancient scripture that explained a journey a true warrior needed to complete in order to gain strength and to truly learn how this strength should be used. Multiple copies of that script could be found ever since the time of Evil Deities' rampage across the world. Before Gazef became the Warrior Captain of the Kingdom he was already close in terms of power to the "realm of Heroes". After he was granted access to the resources at the King's disposal, Gazef got his hands on the copy and thanks to its advice stepped outside of the boundaries of humanity.

"Let's move to the next village on the road. Hopefully, we would be on time to save it." Gazef declared, since Vice Captain has no way to answer his question.

* * *

Enri Emmot's days were generally the same ever since she was twelve. She would wake up with the rising sun with the rest of her family. Then she would go to the nearby well and bring water back to their home. By that time her mother would make breakfast for their family of four. After breakfast she and her parents would work the fields while her sister Nemu would collect firewood from the forest. That would continue until the bells in the middle of the square sounded the lunch break. After lunch they would resume their work until the sun comes down and it's time for dinner. After dinner her whole family would gather around the hearth fire to sew their clothes or other small tasks. They would go to sleep around 8. Next day would be the repeat of the previous one.

Today however was different. Her family's work was interrupted by the sound of hooves galloping closer and closer to their village. This was strange. Aside from random traveler or adventurer, Carne Village was only visited by herbalists or tax collectors from E-Rantel. Now, however their village was visited by a group of armed and mounted people.

Like moth drawn to the flame, villagers have approached the square were armored riders have stopped. Their equipment looked ragtag. Some were wearing plate armor and chain mail while some just wore hardened leather. Their weapons also varied from man to man. To most villagers it meant nothing as all they ever seen were random adventurers and travelers who were also armed with whatever they could get their hands on. A keener observer immediately would have identified the approaching riders as a group of battle hardened veterans. Or a band of ragtag sell-swords, depending on the level of cynicism such an observer possessed.

"My name is Gazef Stronoff, I am the Warrior Captain of Re-Estize Kingdom. By order of the King, I have been visiting each of the frontier villages to exterminate knights from enemy countries who have been making trouble here. May I speak with the village chief?" the lead warrior said.

* * *

Agu, the fourth son of Ah, the chieftain of the Gigu tribe of goblins and hobgoblins was running. Behind him, and army of darkness was advancing through the Tob Forest.

One minute his tribe was going over their usual daily activities and minute later their clearing was suddenly overrun with fleeing animals. Behind, dozens of the dead Trolls, Goblins and Ogres were marching. Everything that was on their path was being destroyed, everyone who challenged them died.

Acting as the army's vanguard was a champion of Death, who was cutting down his tribesmen left and right with its wicked looking jagged edge sword. Its massive body was sheathed in a suit of full plate armor made from some black metal and it was covered in red tracery that resembled blood vessels.

The armor was also covered in spikes as far as anyone could see, and it looked like a man-shaped incarnation of brutality. Demonic horns sprang from its head, and one could see its rotted face underneath them. Twin points of hateful, murderous light shone in the eye sockets of its ghastly visage. Behind the ranks of undead army was its obvious commander - An Elder Lich who had the visage of a skeleton and the bearing of someone who looked almost bored by the ongoing slaughter.

While Agu knew he should take arms like the rest of his tribe and fight, great terror overtook all his senses and he ran. Away from his tribe, away from his village. He knew deep in his heart that anyone who would stand and fight would meet their end.

That day, Gigu tribe became no more.

* * *

Momonga and his small entourage were slowly making way south through the forest, where city of E-Rantel was supposed to be located. While there was a way for Momonga to increase his travel speed with his summons, for example: by sending some of the scout type undead like Wraiths and then when they found the city, teleporting to their position, he decided to enjoy the view and experience of discovering the unknown. So far, everything he has encountered was far weaker than him, they couldn't even get through his damage and magic Immunities. In fact, most things they have encountered were far weaker than the Death Knight. At some point, Momonga simply let Belius to slaughter everything that somehow managed to resist the fear effects of his [Despair Aura I] and instead of running away, attacked.

Several times they have stopped for Momonga to test out this or that ability. The main issue Momonga was facing: _why was Belius still here?_ It has been at least 12 hours after he has summoned the Death Knight and he is yet to dispel. At first, Momonga has assumed that in this world the summons had no time limit. He has created several more Undead to act as his perimeter guard. After a few hours of movement, all the other Undead has dispelled, while Belius remained. This fact prompted Momonga to attempt to summon different types of undead using corpses of those who were slain while on the way to the E-Rantel.

Now he was followed by a small army of walking dead. Death Knights had the ability to turn creatures they killed into Squire Zombies. While there was a limit of how many of Squire Zombies could be spawned by a single Death Knight, these Squire Zombies could freely create any number of Zombies out of those who were killed by them. While it was rarely an issue in the Yggdrasil since the Squire Zombies were fairly weak, in this low-level area, they were creating a sort of snowballing effect, with Belius attacking stronger enemies and wounding or simply killing them, while a horde of Squire Zombies and their vassals overrunning and turning the weak and wounded.

As far as Momonga was concerned, he attempted to lower the casualties as much as possible. His [Despair Aura I] has scattered the females, children and the old as well as most animals. He also did not seek fight with anyone, avoiding larger concentrations of living through his use of [Detect Life]. Only those who were willing to fight him were killed. They also weren't just left in the dust after their deaths, they were utilized in his quest for knowledge or raised as a part if his small army.

So far however, he was only getting more questions than answers. The beings he has encountered were consistent with those he fought in Yggdrasil, but some of them seem to use abilities outside of their in-game templates. These abilities did not make them too powerful, but their existence already made him suspicious of the situation:

On one hand, these abilities could point to him being in the world far different from Yggdrasil. But if that's true, why could he use his magic and abilities? If he had to level up here from the scratch, could he still access his current arsenal?

On the other hand, if this strange world was indeed based on Yggdrasil, where did these abilities come from? Were there other ability trees he had no idea about?

He needed some source of knowledge. Yggdrasil was a game about discovering the unknown and the only way of getting the data was through communication, experimentation on the game mechanics and research of the in-game lore. He had no one to ask so far, his friends did not seem to receive his [Messages]. His experiments were going on, but they needed to be systematized to bring him some benefit. Maybe if he had access to a library or an archive of sorts, he could find out what was going on from the background lore and history. He needed to check out what the average mage of this place knew about magic and its branches, unlikely that they would practice Necromancy, but the overall outlook and briefing on the way of things here could help him too. Maybe he should also look into what magical items people of this world possessed, what gods they worshiped, what level of comfort they sustained..

* * *

"So, the Knights did not show up here…" Vice-Captain of Gazef's warrior troop was thinking out loud.

"This only makes the whole situation even more suspicious…" Gazef answered.

Their original suspicion was that the village raids were meant to lure him and his Warrior-Troop into an ambush while outnumbered and under-equipped. While in terms of pure skill and talent Gazef was considered to be more powerful than any individual warrior of the Empire, he could lose to the Four Knights if they attacked together, supported by a group of Imperial Earth Guard, or even Royal Guard. And that excludes the possibility of encountering Emperor's Court Wizard who could fight an entire army by himself. But after brutally destroying Redon Village, the knights simply disappeared. No other village was attacked and no one spotted any sort of suspicious activity.

Were they aiming to deal as much damage as possible and retreat? Or were they planning to wait till Warrior Troop left back to the capital and start raids anew? Or even worse, they calculated the strength of his Warriors and now were waiting for reinforcements to get rid of him once and for all?

Gazef didn't know which scenario was the true one, but he knew one thing: his orders were to find out who was attacking the Villages and wipe them out. He couldn't just go back to Re-Estize if the enemy merely decided to lay low for a while.

"Let's go back to E-Rantel, we must restock and I need to talk with the mayor about deploying scouts and patrols. We will root out these Knights" Gazef declared.

* * *

Enri Emmot couldn't help but feel both relieved and horrified at what Village Chief told them when Warrior-Captain and his men departed.

Relieved that Carne Village was not raided, she and her family were unharmed and that presence of Stronoff-sama has scared the knights off.

Horrified at the fate of several neighboring Villages, which were simply wiped out at the whim of the enemy Emperor, as well as the fact her home might yet suffer the same.

She thought what would have happened if they were attacked. Her parents would most likely protect Nemu and then flee. She hoped she could flee too. Maybe the Knights could decide to spare her as she was just a village girl. She also wondered what her good friend Nfirea Bareare would have done in that situation. If he was in danger, he could most likely protect himself with his magic.

But most importantly, she felt that something was very wrong when she looked at her parents and Nemu sitting in the main room of their house. It was a weird feeling that she could not shake off, as if something very important happened right now, not just for her but for the whole world.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Yes, Enri kept her parents, but she lost something too**


	4. E-Rantel Escalation

**E-Rantel Escalation**

 **I DO NOT OWN OVERLORD.**

 **Had to break this chapter into two, since it is already like 12K words. Not sure if I found a good point to end this part. Will post the second part soon.**

* * *

It was another slow day in the 'Broken Spear Inn'. The patrons were almost all regulars of the establishment: generally, men with the aura of slight danger around them. The windows were closed, and so the interior was somewhat dark. People who were used to the light outside would probably not be able to see their hands stretched out in front of their faces. However, the customers here were all used to navigating in the darkness or half-darkness, so they could see clearly with this meager amount of illumination.

The inside of the building was quite spacious. The first floor was a dining area, with a counter further within. That counter was backed by shelves that contained dozens of bottles of alcohol. The door beside the counter led to a kitchen.

In the far corner of that dining area sat a lone woman. She looked to be 20 years old or younger, she had untidy red hair that was trimmed short, her features weren't ugly or overly pretty and her eyes were sharp. Her beauty would be considered natural as she didn't wear makeup and her skin was tanned due to the exposure to the sun. Girl's name was Brita. She was an Iron Ranked Adventurer who was talented with the sword.

Indeed. Almost all the patrons of 'Broken Spear Inn' were adventurers of low-to-mid rank. Most of them were using this Inn not only as the place to get a good drink and share whatever scraps of information they had with their team and fellows, but also to scout out promising newbie adventurers. After all, this would be the place most copper plates would go when they just signed up with the local Guild.

Suddenly, a weird chill went through the adventurers of the Inn. It was an eerie thing, one person shuddered, then another, a wave of shudders went through whole Inn. Brita let out a breath, but she didn't see it become steam, the actual temperature in the room didn't change. Then came the heartbeat. Each of them started hearing their heartbeat become louder and faster. To Brita it was deafening. She felt as if some invisible hand was slowly strangling her. She could feel herself breath in and out great amounts of air, but she was still feeling her mind slowly slip. Darkness was slowly closing in, her eyes piratically closed.

Then, it all ended. She opened her eyes and saw everyone else in the Inn do the same.

"What the hell was that?" Someone asked. Brita was wondering the same thing.

* * *

The fortress city of E-Rantel was everything a fantasy novel reader would expect: high stone walls, vaguely medieval-looking buildings, impressive looking manors that belonged to local nobility and merchants, unimpressive looking hovels which were owned by everyone else, as well as no sign of modern plumbing, pavement or even basics of sanitary norms. It was six days after the supposed end of Yggdrasil.

Still, Momonga supposed, if one were to look at it as a place that was built before the advent of electricity, complex machinery, steam engines and even cement, this place looked positively grandiose. He could even understand why some Guilds decided to make castles and fortresses like this as their Bases, despite them being a horrible place to defend against foes who could fly, teleport and needed to merely cast a portal spell to draw reinforcements inside the defensive walls.

It was kind of nice to enter into the town and to see people milling around at the market square, looking at the wares, buying, selling and arguing over a price of every little thing. On the other side of the road one would see a line of taverns where one could find a drink, a bed, or even someone to share those two with. If Momonga was an average novel or manga protagonist a small kid would have bumped into him while trying to steal few coins for himself and his friends.

But Momonga was not an average novel protagonist. Which is why he was currently under the effect of [Mass Perfect Unknowable], several defense enhancing buffs, had multiple Wraiths and Ghosts acting as his perimeter guards and was ready to teleport away the moment he or his summons came under attack. He also already had scouted the city for any sign of powerful mobs or Players using few scrying methods he could use as well as his ghost-type undead to [Phase] or [Possess] through the guards and obstacles.

He already had an entire surveillance network around the whole city ready to inform him of any abnormalities. Of course, there was also a cost for his preparations. Unlike Yggdrasil, where he had a separate control scheme to order his summons around, he now commanded them using a small mental connection, almost like a string between him and his servants' minds.

When he only had Belius, he could manipulate the Death Knight like his own arm, perfectly limiting or directing his actions. When he was moving through the forest with his small army, he only needed to give one command, go forward, fight only if attacked. He of course sometimes redirected them, but it was just a single command to all the undead he or his summons controlled.

Now however, he had connection to Belius and the army that he left in the woods slightly away from the city gate, his own guards and a dozen lesser Wraiths and Ghosts he has spread all over the city points of interest. It was most likely inability of human 'Satoru' to comprehend the mental connections an Overlord like 'Momonga' could establish and maintain. He could control them, but he needed to pinpoint the string he had to pull. He was fairly sure the voice commands would have been easier to use, but under the [Perfect Unknowable] no one can hear you, not even your allies, not to mention that people would have noticed some sort of odd voice calling from nothingness to nothingness.

And so, Momonga went around the town, looking at the sights while he and his small guard were spreading an aura of death, decay and fear to all the unsuspecting people around them through their natural output of negative energy.

* * *

In the inner part of E-Rantel, behind the third ring of walls, an administrative heart of the city could be found. Multiple important buildings were located there including a VIP Villa where the Royal Family would live while in the city, several archives and libraries as well as massive Mansion.

This Mansion, while not as luxurious as the King's Villa, could be considered the location of the highest authority in the region. That is because E-Rantel, unlike most other cities on the Kingdom was not directly controlled by a feudal lord of some sort. It was owned by the King Rampossa directly and in his absence all the administrative power fell to the hands of the Mansion's owner – Mayor of E-Rantel, Panasolei Guruze Dale Rettenmaier.

Which is why this Mansion was currently visited by Gazef Stronoff himself.

"I'm telling you, Panasolei-dono, it is impossible for me and my Warrior-Troop to cover the whole region without the risk of being simply picked off one by one or some other villages being burned before we could respond."

The man Gazef was facing was not a pleasant looking one. If one wanted to be rude when describing the Mayor, first thing they would mention would be: fat — no, frankly speaking, the man was almost entirely made up of fat. His belly was rounded and flabby, and his chins were overflowing with adipose tissue. The excess of fat made Panasolei look like a bulldog. However, while this appearance could make one doubt the man's competence or military understanding, doing so would be a mistake.

"And I'm telling you, respected Warrior-Captain-dono, deploying soldiers to the villages would only send them to their deaths. We both know how skilled the Imperial Knights could be"

Such was the problem of utilizing militia-like unprofessional army. While lord's own retinue could generally be composed of highly skilled warriors, this unit would be rarely capable of acting in multiple locations due to their number, while unskilled peasant militias and green recruits could rarely be effective in the direct battle against the professional soldiers.

"There has to be some way of protecting this place, if we coul~" Gazef's sentence was interrupted when the both men heard a knocking on the door.

"Enter" called out Panasolei.

"Excuse me Stronoff-sama, Panasolei-sama, several messages have been delivered here, to the Manor, a few moments ago, all of them are marked 'Important' and are addressed to you, Panasolei-sama" Mayor's assistant called out from outside the office.

"From whom are the messages?"

"One from Adventurer's Guild, one from Magician's Guild, two from the City Guard and one from each temple of the Four Gods"

"…What is going on here?" Both men wondered at the same time.

* * *

At the same time, in the middle part of E-Rantel as similar meeting was conducted.

"So, it is the same on your side?" a powerful-looking middle-aged man asked. He had an aura of a mighty veteran about him. There was no doubt that he was an excellent warrior. His name was Ainzach Pluton, he was the Guildmaster of E-Rantel's Adventurer Guild.

"Yes, unexpected feeling of cold, followed by the overwhelming dread, no signs of poisons, illnesses or hallucinogens detected" the answer came from a very old woman, and both her face and hands were heavily wrinkled. Her hair, which reached to her eyebrows, was pure white. She was wearing work clothes which seemed green and smelt heavily of grass. Lizzie Bareare, the best herbalist/alchemist in E-Rantel.

This meeting was conducted between "civilians", but their combined influence could easily overcome the influence of any city officials, including the mayor. Here, the most powerful among those who lived in the second layer of the city met to discuss a series of similar events that have been reported or experienced by them. Adventurers, Magicians, Priests, Merchants and other patricians of E-Rantel were gathered here by a coincidence. While they set out on investigations separately, process of meeting same people and visiting same areas resulted in the joining of forces and information.

"I see, Theo, what have you found?" Ainzach addressed Theo Rakesheer, leader of the local Magician's Guild.

"We didn't detect any traces of magic in the affected areas" the skinny looking man answered. "Which makes this all more suspicious"

"How?" Someone of the people in the meeting couldn't help but ask.

"Well, you see, faint traces of magic are not that uncommon within our city. Normal utility spells leave them, as do most good potions, not to mention the enchanted items. Even without my fellow magic casters doing anything, there should be something" He took a breath to continue "But the areas are completely clean of them, someone must have used incredibly powerful concealment spell, or maybe a spell that would dissipate the traces."

"So, we can't use that method to make sure" Ainzach concluded. "Well then, we can now only guess what could have done this, considering the circumstances of our city, a High Wraith, or something of similar nature"

Unlike most cities, E-Rantel had a very massive graveyard. It is due to the clashes between Kingdom and the Empire. Every year, two armies would meet in a short battle and there would be casualties on both sides. If the bodies of people were not properly buried and they were not mourned the possibility of Undead rising was fairly high. Which is why the graveyard of E-Rantel was used to bury killed soldiers and to have services performed to make souls rest. Still, even then undead rose sometimes in the graveyard, forcing the city of wall it off and then for groups of city guard and adventurers to exterminate the undead before they could pose significant threat. However, a High Wraith could just go through the walls and its negative aura would inspire a feeling of fear and death into the people around it, like the one the one many have reported.

"A High Wraith is not an average weak undead that could rise just like that, nor can it use that kind of magic to remove the traces, someone must have summoned it" one of the Adventurers that joined the meeting said.

"Indeed, which means there is something wrong happening within the city, most likely the graveyard, where one could gather the energy of the dead and undead to power such a spell. I propose we petition the Mayor to allow us an investigation into that place." Ainzach said.

His proposal was met with a wave of approval from almost everyone present and the plans on who would join the investigation team were being drawn up. In all that activity, no one noticed a lone figure hurriedly slip from the room.

* * *

"What is this language? How the hell are they reading this?" Momonga was muttering under his breath. He managed to find a small library that belonged to the Magician Guild. While the building had some intrusion countermeasures, he managed to dispel several and slip in one of his summons. He then used as spell that allowed him to perceive world from its POV.

However, all the texts he picked up were written in letters he did not understand. Satoru knew Japanese and a bit of English, he could also distinguish several Asian written languages, if not understand them. But this was completely different.

What made this so bizarre was the fact that people spoke in Japanese. Yet somehow, they used a different alphabet for everything else.

Or… were they not talking in Japanese? That thought set off several alarm clocks in Momonga's mind. He had little proof anyone actually spoke Japanese. He had assumed they did since he was thinking in Japanese, but could he just know their language like how he knew his skill and how to use them?

Different languages were a thing in Yggdrasil. They were not actual languages, but a parameter of certain items, characters and abilities. For example, Momonga who had the ability [Speak Evil Tongues] could interact with certain NPCs which were meant to only speak in "Evil Tongues". Someone could circumvent this by using special magic items, just like Momonga could circumvent language barrier with his Magical Glasse~. Of course!

If one somehow could see through Momonga's [Perfect Unknowable] they could see him suddenly facepalm himself. This was because he could probably just read the unknown letters using one of his magical items, assuming enchantments worked the same way in this world.

Back in Yggdrasil, Momonga could interact with scrolls and books "written" in different languages thanks to the set of Magical Glasses which would automatically translate any written language. Of course, the actual text of the in-game books was in Japanese and the "Language" parameter of the book was meant to limit the accessibility of information inside.

This was done to add a bit more of mystery to the game, where player could find potentially important book, but could not actually use it, since it was written in some different Tongue. Same for some random NPCs which could point to some treasures, but only spoke one Tongue.

There was a problem however, he would need to manually read the texts since he only had one set of these and was unwilling to give them to a random weak summon.

"It seems I will have to spend a while here" Momonga muttered.

* * *

It was already evening when Nfirea Bareare closed his family laboratory, he had to do it alone since his grandmother was called to a meeting of sorts among E-Rantel's wealthier residents. Normally he would have stayed doing his work later, but today he had some other things to do. His grandmother Lizzie told him about a gossip that one of her friends heard while talking to the visiting soldiers. The gossip told that the Warrior-Captain Gazef Stronoff and his Warrior Troop has come to E-Rantel in order to counter the Baharuth Empire's Knights who were spotted burning down frontier villages.

There were no specifics in the gossip, so he didn't know which villages were gone and who survived. The thoughts of Carne Village and his dear friend, Enri Emmot filled him. Was she okay? Were they affected by the raids? If they were, how could he help them? He could propose Enri to move into E-Rantel and help around the shop.

These and similar thoughts were in his head during the whole day while he manned the potion shop and admittedly it affected his performance. Often, he caught himself spacing out deep in thought while worrying about the girl he had interest in. He had to check everything out by himself, or the thought would keep on torturing him forever.

However, before he could start planning a trip to Carne, he had to confirm the gossip. It would be foolish for him to show up there, only because someone heard something wrong and no attacks actually happened. So, as soon as the shop could be closed he planned to rush outside and go into the outer city layer, where he could find the barracks the Warrior Troop would occupy.

Alas, this was not meant to happen. Nfirea was so occupied by his thoughts and preparations that he completely missed how a slim figure came into his shop and casually sat down on the countertop. Only when he moved towards the door, Nfirea noticed it.

Before him sat a pretty, yet vaguely unsettling young woman. Her blonde hair swayed in the wind. She was wearing a cloak with what looked like a mesh armor of sorts underneath. He could see several blade handles sticking from under the cloak.

Surprised, Nfirea had to ask:

"…May, may I ask who you are?"

The woman simply smiled, but that smile looked even more malicious than her equipment.

"Yes~ my name is Clementine, you don't know me, but I know a fair bit about you~"

"A-ah, the shop is closed for today, please come tomorrow for any business"

"Hm? Ehehehe~ Well you see, my business here cannot be postponed. I came to kidnap you~ I need someone to use the spell which summons a biiiiiiig horde of undead, [Undeath Army], so could you be my magic item? Onee-chan's begging you~"

"Ah, well… I'm sorry then, [Acid Arrow]"

Nfirea was not a great combatant, despite being able to use 2nd Tier Magic. So, after hurling a spell at the girl, he rushed for exit.

However, before he reached the door, the woman was already there, still smiling as if nothing happened.

He felt an armored fist dig into his stomach. Breath was punched out of him in one instance. Nfirea kneeled from the pain. He felt Clementine put a hand under his chin and lift it. She was looking down on him with a cruel expression.

"I'm sorry I can't play with your more~ Khaji-chan says we have to accelerate our plans due to some circumstances~. Well, at least this means I can play with Gazef-chan now. That should be fun~"

With this words Clementine delivered a single fast punch to his temple. And Nfirea could see no more.

* * *

"It's already late evening huh…" Momonga muttered while walking down the street under the disguise of [Perfect Unknowable] once more.

It took Momonga many hours to dig through the Magician Guild's library. None of the books he saw were familiar to him and most were named in a manner that made it hard for him to distinguish if the text was some sort of biography of a renowned magic caster, a dissertation on a nature of magic, a detailed instruction on how some spell should be used or all of these combined.

Still, he managed to get some perspective on the Magical knowledge of this place. The tomes inside confirmed that they were using Yggdrasil's magic system. It seemed that the most widespread magic was of the 1st and 2nd Tier for the humans of these lands. 3rd to 5th Tiers were only used by very skilled or talented, with many being legendary heroes some of whom are considered the pinnacle that a human could achieve. And 6th tier was a mythical magic only the greatest mortal magic casters could use.

Anything beyond that was something from the legends and magical theories were discussing it as something that should be possible, when massive ceremonies are conducted by incredibly powerful magicians or maybe even gods.

That fact made Momonga feel very underwhelmed. He assumed that the knights and the mobs he met in the forest were just very weak beings who could only prey on the helpless peasants, but it seems now that most humans here were incredibly weak when compared to him.

What he noticed however, was the comparison in the power between a Magic caster and a Warrior with their competence measured in the spells and [Martial Arts] they could use.

Momonga didn't know what Martial Arts were meant here, but they could be the abilities he saw several beings perform in the Forest. He needed to find out the knowledge on these Martial Arts, but there was no Warrior's Guild here, if such thing existed at all.

Then, he sensed a presence near him.

Momonga turned towards the presence, it seemed like his [Undead Blessing], a skill that allowed him to perceive other undead, was triggered. What he saw was a Ghost.

Ghosts were type of low tier undead that like Wraiths relied on stealth and their ability to phase through walls. However, a Ghost was even worse combatant than the Wraith, with the latter one having better stats and abilities. Still, Ghosts were good scouts and could be used to manipulate mobs into infighting through their ability to [Possess].

Momonga also used them to scout out the city, now many guard were walking around possessed. He instructed his Ghosts to not interfere with the guards' activities and only to try to alert him through their mental link if something extraordinary was happening.

Which is why he found this Ghost wandering around wrong. Was his control slipping? Was there some limitation on how closely they would follow his orders?

Then he noticed in which direction the Ghost was floating. It was moving towards an unsuspecting couple that was a dozen meters away.

"No, stop, this will blow our cover" Momonga called out, but as all sounds, it was suppressed by his magic

The Ghost was moving in very close. Momonga started filtering through all of his mental connections, trying to pinpoint the string he needed to stop it.

The Ghost attacked. It targeted the man and started seeping the life energy from him. The female scream could be heard, but this was an unpopulated street which is why Momonga was using it.

Momonga saw the Ghost turn towards the woman. He did a mental equivalent of pulling all the strings he had with his summons and ordered _**[GET OVER HERE]**_. The Ghost disobeyed.

"It's not mine." The though hit Momonga like a train. He was so stunned that the sight of woman being drained of her life didn't affect him. He spent so much effort looking for strong people and concealing himself from the living, he completely disregarded the chance of weak (by his standards) undead.

Only when the dead woman dropped to the ground, did Momonga snap out and incinerated the Ghost with the remnants of its victims.

[Maximize Magic: Detect Undead] Momonga casted, could there be more of them walking around here, within the city?

There were. They auras told that they were weak, but they were many and with the average level of locals, they could overrun the locals. He brushed through whatever he managed to collect through his Ghost infiltrators and interrogation of the Knight Londes. The undead were not normal encounters for most people, in fact even those who patrolled the graveyard rarely fought them. The undead were most likely summoned. There could be necromancers in that part of the city. Momonga set off with [Fly]. He could not lose this chance to find out how necromancy here worked for the locals.

* * *

The Death Knight known as Belius was charging. His summoner has commanded _**[GET OVER HERE]**_ and the anger he could feel through the link has reignited the burning wrath Death Knights usually felt during combat. The Master was inside the human city, so Belius calculated the fastest route through the city and its inhabitants. It seemed that he needed to assault the gates before the mortals had a chance to lock them. On a good note, it would also allow Belius' own slaves and Master's other servants a chance to fulfill their shared order.

Indeed, while mortals may think undead dull and evil creatures, that sentiment was not exactly right, they understood cooperation and more. Most undead were just as intelligent as their role was meant to be. Lower ranks may be only capable of low level cooperation, the likes of "you strike the left hand, I'll strike the right one", but the higher their power, their stats like intelligence was higher too. For a Death Knight like Belius, these stats made him at least as smart as an average human being. Of course, if he could talk, most humans would have found him a poor conversationalist, but when it came to sword fighting, he could easily be used as an instructor. So Belius was willing to put more effort if it allowed more of his fellow summons to successfully serve.

But back to Belius' charge. Momonga has stationed his small army slightly outside E-Rantel's northern gate, the one facing the Forest of Tob. They were concealed using the [Invisibility Cocoon], before the order to move was given to them. So, when they wanted to enter the city, the Norther Gate was an obvious choice.

When attacking a fortified position, one would normally desire a numerical superiority over the enemy. The guards and troops manning the northern wall and its gate were outnumbering the attacking undead. Normally the attack would be repulsed. But this was not a normal situation. In this world a talented and skilled individual could have a power to fight an entire army.

Each undead type in Momonga's army could take on at least half a dozen average Re-Estize soldiers, purely due to their stats and abilities. When one considers all the bonuses they received from being under Momonga's commands or summoned by him, this power difference would increase more. And a Death Knight alone could be considered a national threat to humans due to its power. There were only two other undead of the similar level to Belius as more powerful undead summoned by Momonga has dispelled over time, as did the ones not summoned with corpses.

But his strength alone was enough to punch through the Gate guards. They were unprepared to be attacked just like that, by a being on a level of adamantine adventurers. The clashes with Empire were happening far away at the Katze Plains and an attacking army would have been sighted miles away from towers or by small patrols. Few monsters within the Forest were stupid or strong enough to approach a human city just like that, driving the city guard into complacency. Which is why the gate guards only reacted after Belius crossed half the distance between forest edge and the wall. By the time someone rang the bell, he was already beheading one of the people inside the kill box within the gate.

When the soldiers on top of the walls and towers attempted to use bows against the oncoming undead, they were assaulted by Wraiths who could just fly through the obstacles. This way, wreathed in the scent of rot, the menacing mass of undead pressed in through the gate almost unopposed. It was not just Zombie Squires and Belius down there; there were also a few rarer and less well known to an average person undead — Plague Ghouls, Wicked Wights, several Undead Trolls, Ogres, few Wraiths and High Wraiths as well as Jack the Ripper and Corpse Collector. They were turned or summoned from bodies of any demi-human or heteromorphs that Momonga encountered on his track to E-Rantel.

Attacked with such a ferocity and surprise, the guards on the wall were routed while the ones on the ground were completely wiped out. However, now Belius and co. had to punch through the city inhabitants and the troops who were stationed at the outer layer of the city, to reach Momonga.

With a portion of the guard and adventurers distracted by the trouble with the undead advancing from the city graveyard, entire E-Rantel would essentially be under a pincer attack.

The bloodbath would inevitably commence.

* * *

By the time Momonga reached the graveyard, the guards who were manning the graveyard entrance were already routed by a Necrosome Giant who broke through the doors. The undead were spreading through the city, killing civilians left and right. But Momonga overlooked them, he could take care of this later, not to mention the guards managed to sound the bell probably alerting the other soldiers. Momonga did hear another bell being sounded somewhere near the outer wall of the city, most likely responding 'We got your message'.

Considering how weak these undead were, the soldiers would take care of this, the knights he faced at the ruined village were decent. Momonga could not verify this, as his previous outburst called all his High Wraiths and Ghosts to him, essentially tearing down the surveillance network he created. He also had a feeling this did something else too, but he wasn't sure what. He could take care of this later too, after he saw the local necromancers.

Stepping over the remnants of the gate and several of its defenders, Momonga proceeded inside the graveyard proper. He took a small stride though the fog covered area until he managed to reach the chapel at the heart of the graveyard. Several suspicious-looking fellows were standing in a circle in front of the chapel, apparently conducting some kind of ritual.

They all wore crude black robes which covered their entire bodies, and which varied in both texture and color. Their black head cloths hid their faces and only showed their eyes, while the wooden staves they carried had strange carvings on their ends. They were short, and by the way they carried themselves, they were probably all men.

The only exposed face belonged to the man in the middle, and he looked like he was undead. He was well-dressed and seemed to be concentrating on the black stone that he held in his hand. The wind carried whispered words to Momonga's non-existent ears. The voices in the air rose and fell in unison, and it sounded like some sort of chanting. However, it did not sound like a requiem to the dead, but more like some sort of dark ritual which blasphemed against the deceased.

"What is the meaning of this?" Momonga asked.

The gathered men were all staring in his general direction, but not at him. Momonga was surrounded by an entire swarm of Ghosts and High Wraiths, who were almost acting as a floating shield. The idea was: if he was attacked by a strong foe, he was sure they would be able to distract the enemy while Momonga ran. Now the men before him were all staring at the cloud of undead, while he himself was ignored.

Momonga decided to intimidate the group.

[Despair Aura I] "What is the meaning of all this?"

The men all shuddered. Some kneeled, while some turned to the bald man in the middle.

"Khajit-sama what is going on? Why the dark spirits are furious with us?"

The so-called Khajit, who was probably the highest-ranked of all the people present, was intensely staring at the black stone. And still everyone seemed to ignore Momonga.

Then Momonga realized he was yet again under the effects of [Perfect Unknowable]. These people only saw a swarm of his minions and couldn't hear his questions. With a slight embarrassment, he dispelled the charm and asked again.

"I was wondering what is going on here".

"Aiiiyeee!" With a wail, the rest of hooded men dropped to their knees and so did the Khajit.

Before Momonga could act another voice rang out through the graveyard.

"Say, Khaji-chan, you didn't mention that you already had help in your ritual~ If they knew you already had Elder Lich friends, the rest of our organization would have given you more resources and respect, I would imagine~ What is your name, Lich-san? It is impolite to avoid lady's questions~"

A woman in what looked like cloak and a set of bikini-like armor walked out from a nearby building. She had a set of what looked like stilettos and a Morningstar. Momonga wanted to protest that he was an Overlord, but he decided to make them underestimate him. He would just go away the moment he gets all the information from them. No need to leave too many fingerprints, even though he had no flesh on his fingers.

"My name is not important. What is important, what kind of ritual were you attempting? Your activities here have attracted my attention, I am greatly interested in what you have planned"

Finally, the Khajit-person lifted his head and answered.

"Yes, oh unliving one. I am Khajit of Zuranon. Me and my acolytes were meaning to summon an army of undead using the [Undeath Army] spell and turn this city into the realm of undeath. We used the combination of a powerful artefacts and a talented individual to accomplish this all. And with my Orb of Death we were planning to allow me to ascend to the real of unliving to become an Elder Lich just like yourself."

That was interesting to Momonga. In Yggdrasil, one had to use various items to change race, but this Orb of Death was unknown to him. Not to mention, this ritual could be interesting, he had used Book of the Dead to become Lich. While he was weary of these people, he decided to use [All Appraisal Magic Item].

The Orb of Death was an impressive name, and while it was hardly outstanding by his own standards, everything he saw in the Mage's Guild was even weaker. The Orb aided in controlling the undead, and it could cast several different necromantic spells every day, but those hardly appealed to Momonga. It also had the drawback of mentally dominating humans who held it, although Momonga was immune, as were some demihumans or heteromorphic creatures.

"What a curious item…" Things which intrigued him were the fact that it was an intelligent magic item and that it could manipulate the Negative Energy. It could be used as a med-kit for him, similarly to how he used the items that allowed him to cast [Greater Lethal].

"So, you planned to use the Negative Energy from the deaths an undead army would cause, collected by this orb?" After getting confirmation, Momonga decided to try something different.

"What if I had a way to generate a lot of Negative Energy for you."

* * *

Brita was stuck in the middle of a massacre. An undead army somehow broke into the outer layer of the city and was marching through the streets killing everything on their path. A horrible monster was leading it, slaughtering soldiers, adventurers and average folks left and right. Those who were killed by it rose as powerful zombies and continued the carnage.

What was worse, even the zombies seemed more powerful than an average human levy or guard and other undead were at least as strong as Silver Ranked adventurer, with many even seeming to be more powerful than that.

The leading monster, the one wearing a set of black armor and wielding a wicked looking sword and a massive shield was brushing even Mithril Level adventurers off like flies. She saw members of Kralgra, a Mithril Adventurer team lose a fight against that monster, several dead, wounded by the undead Warrior and then torn apart by its weaker minions. It seemed like the attacking dead didn't even take losses while taking the control of Northern District's outer layer and slaughtering almost everyone who didn't hole up in some building, raising them as zombies, thus increasing their numbers to at least hundreds if not thousands.

By that point the undead already had both the numbers and the power to proceed unopposed until they were halted by the second wall, that separated the civilian part of the city. Not that it helped much, she heard from one of the adventurers that rushed from the Guild to hold the Middle Wall's gate that the second layer was also attacked by the undead streaming from the graveyard.

"This can't be possible, this thing and the one with the green hair must be as strong as the Orichalcum, if not Adamantine Level!" someone shouted.

Right now, to her left she was witnessing the fight between the remaining members of Kralgra and the Undead Warrior, to her right the members of the Rainbow, another Mithril Ranked adventurer team were facing off a slick looking undead with Green hair and a burly looking undead with bandages and pustules all over its body. Brita didn't know this, but they were facing off a Death Knight, a Jack the Reaper and a Corpse Collector.

Previously they tried to attack this trio using their numbers, but the undead merely focused on slaughtering those who were weaker first, raising some as zombies and then using their numbers to overwhelm the attackers. Now they decided that the strongest would fight the powerful Trio, while weaker adventurers would face the rest of Undead army.

So far, they had little success. The oncoming waves of zombies were forcing them back one step at the time, while the more unique undead would pick them off if they were injured or too weak. She saw a magic caster be drained to death by the Wraiths, a swordsman first sliced in many places by the Greenhair and then torn apart by the much more powerful than normal Ghouls, one man from Rainbow was hit with what looked like a splash of puke or acid by the Bandaged undead and just rot in seconds.

Kralgra was not faring better, one of the members just got his arm sliced off and was bleeding on the ground, Cleric used up all of his mana and simply collapsed, only to be dragged away and stomped to death by several undead Trolls. Only the leader, Igvarge was still standing.

"Igvarge-san, we must withdraw, everyone is too strained, this line won't hold much longer!" Moknach, leader of the Rainbow was screaming.

"No, I almost got him! We can win this, it will be glorious! We well be heroes!" Igvarge was screaming with a what sounded like hysteria. The struggle went on. Several more on their side died and only a dozen or two of zombies have fallen on the side of unliving. Then Brita heard a squelching sound. When she looked over, understood what was happening. Igvarge was laying on the ground, covering his face, he seemed to be screaming something. When he looked in her direction, there was a massive slash where his eyes once were. Then the undead Warrior lowered its leg on the man's head.

His helmet deformed under the impact of the boot and the skull below caved in, while his already ruined eyeballs popped free of his head from the force of the tremendous impact. His head was thoroughly smashed, like a watermelon during a suikawari game at the beach in summer. Brita gagged.

"Retreat, all pull back to the gate!" Moknach bellowed. What was left of the defenders left the outer city and locked the gates behind them.

The outer part of E-Rantel was overrun.

* * *

 **Yup, Momonga blunders into attacking the city. Honestly, I think that would be just like him if he didn't go for adventurer route.  
The fate works like that for him.**


	5. E-Rantel Falls

**E-Rantel Falls**

 **I don't own Overlord.**

 **Second Part's here.**

* * *

"Hey~ Lich-san, are you sure you can actually make Khaji-chan turn into the undead? I only planned to have a little fun and cause a little ruckus, but with you and your dark spirits, this could be far more interesting. I could probably have so much fun with some people while they are distracted by Wraiths~" The woman, Clementine said. She had a playful smile on her face, but even Momonga could feel slight creeps when looking into her eyes.

They, Zuranon as they called themselves, showed him the kid with the unique talent and an interesting crown. They explained how the ritual was meant to work, the magical circle and the Orb of Death. Now, he only had to test out his theory.

"[Create Middle Tier Undead, Elder Lich]" Momonga pointed to one of the unearthed corpses. Yet again, black fog escaped his finger and engulfed the body. After a few moments instead of some half-rotten peasant body stood a different figure.

An old and luxurious robe covered its body of skins and bones. One of its hands was holding a twisted staff. Its rotting face was just a skin covered skull with evil eyes full of intelligence in its sockets. The emitted negative energy covered his body like a thin fog.

"As you can see, I have no problem calling forth a Lich, what we need to know is if this ritual of yours can collect my Negative Energy".

"S-such power" the acolytes around him were trembling, even though he turned off the [Despair Aura]. Even the woman, Clementine was staring at him with somewhat fearful eyes.

"Well then, let us proceed, [Negative Touch]. Hand over the Orb to me" Momonga calmly said. Honestly, he was little excited about this. He liked all things necromancy and this ritual was something he never saw. A way to avoid the items and normal class structure? Was there a way to circumvent some other requirements and obtain a new job or class?

Khajit reluctantly, it seemed, gave him the Orb of Death.

The moment Momonga touched the Orb, he felt a mental connection of sorts, like the ones he had to the undead he summoned. It seems that the Orb was controlling almost all undead, not the Khajit himself. On top of that, some undead were not controlled at all. With his [Undead Control] Momonga swayed them under his banner and ordered them to regroup near the Graveyard. Then he turned his attention to the orb itself.

Momonga poked it lightly, and just as he was about to command it to speak, there was a voice in his head.

"-Greetings to you, oh mighty King of Death."

Those words echoed within his skull. Momonga continued looking at the Orb. In a world of monsters and magic, this was hardly something to shout about.

"Umu, it really is an intelligent magic item." He nimbly rolled the Orb from hand to hand, and then continued examining it. However, the Orb did not show any sign of wanting to speak.

Momonga pondered the situation, and then after deciding a possible reason for this, he said: "I permit you to speak."

"-You have my deepest thanks, mighty King of Death."

This reaction left Momonga baffled, he was unused to such politeness.

"-Please accept the utmost respect of this one for the absolute aura of Death which surrounds you."

It probably meant his [Despair Aura] he used previously and [Negative Touch].

"Before you continue trying to flatter me, tell me are you absorbing the Negative Energy from my [Negative Touch]?"

"-Yes, oh great King of Death, this one is feeling its power grow from yours"

The mental connection he had to the Orb showed him something like an empty vessel that was slowly being filled in. Good, now to the next test.

"[Negative Energy Flood]" This was a generally weak spell that is usually used to heal the Undead. It was much weaker than [Greater Lethal], but Momonga could use that one only with a cash item that used his equipment slot and was not reinforced with his necromancy skills and perks.

"-Yes, this one's power has grown in mere seconds, thanks to the great King. However, this one deeply apologizes for this thoughtless request, but this one has a wish that it hopes you will help to grant."

"…Oh."

"—Oh mighty King of Death, please accept this one's fealty. This one hopes to have a place among your faithful servants."

It sounded sincere enough, and if it had a head, it would probably have been lowered. Momonga pressed his knuckles to his mouth and began thinking. He had to consider the merits and demerits of taking it as a minion, whether it was reliable, and so on. Momonga examined the magic item again.

For safety's sake, he should probably destroy it. However, something like this did not exist in YGGDRASIL, so destroying it would be a waste. He also liked the idea of a speaking companion, as his trip through the Forest made him feel even more lonely than his apartment.

"… I shall allow it but be prepared that I will attempt to replicate you" since this thing did use the same Negative Energy as Momonga used, he could use this Orb and its copies as a sort of Med-Kits.

"Well, I have confirmed my suspicions. Now, let's begin the experimental ritual." Momonga proclaimed. He honestly was the only one in this situation that had nothing to lose if the ritual fails. All that would happen is that his curiosity about the ritual may go unanswered, but he was sure he could get the details from the Orb. These people on the other hand could lose their lives and years of work.

Yet the men and Khajit were too enchanted with his status as sentient and powerful undead, that they just allowed him to take over and now took their previous places as if the shift in hierarchy was only noticed by the blonde Clementine. It seemed like Khajit and his acolytes were used to be ordered around by an Elder Lich. This required more investigation, but first his experiment had to commence.

Khajit and the acolytes started chanting again. Their formation was meant for the Negative Energy to flow from the Orb and be absorbed to the spell. Magical circle on the other hand was meant to connect their combined magical power into one entity for the duration of the spell, allowing a group to achieve what they individually couldn't. Time to see how good they and their circle are at capturing the Negative Energy.

"[Negative Burst]."

The magic in this world was an interesting thing, because it was being affected by the mechanics, rules and regulation not intended to be used outside the game engine that Yggdrasil used.

As such, these rules and counter-rules were applied to situation automatically, usually against the benefit of magic casters, but sometimes to their favor even when the casters themselves didn't know. The latter was usually true only to the powerful. However, if there was someone powerful in E-Rantel at that moment, it was Momonga.

And thus, when Momonga used [Negative Burst] the amount of negative energy overloaded the magical circle. Usually when that happens, the spell fails with the worst consequences for the caster. But that's when the rules and counter rules kicked in. With Momonga's levels in necromancy related skills as well as the overall levels and stats, the outcome was Critical Success.

And the result was shocking to everyone. Where the Khajit and acolytes stood, now were only Elder Liches of various power.

* * *

They were falling back. There was no other way to describe it as Brita was running for her life. The undead were halted by the second wall, but that was it. They were not repulsed and not even contained as the spirit-type undead simply slaughtered everyone on the walls allowing the Greenhair and several more nimble undead to simply scale them. Without interference it was obvious the undead Warrior and its vassals would slowly break down the gate and advance again.

On the other hand, the group that was attacking from the graveyard was pushed back easier since the undead there were weaker, but they were also dealing damage as these undead were all spread out through the houses, alleys, small corners and other parts of the city where one could find a civilian to kill.

This forced the soldiers, adventurers and local members of Mages guild into a brutal house-to-house confrontation where they had an advantage since the undead could not press their numbers and were more susceptible to the small-team kind of action adventurers were used to, but also had a disadvantage since the weaker adventurers and soldiers had a huge chance of stumbling into an extra-large horde of undead and be wiped out before help would come.

Stronger adventurers and Gazef Stronoff's Warrior Troop could not put their all into wiping out such undead pockets too, since they had to prepare to fight the stronger undead force that was trying to get through the gates into the second city circle.

Their vigilance was payed off when the Greenhair undead and the Ghouls attacked the humans from the city walls. It seemed these walls were lost to enemy control, making the defense of the middle city and its civilians more unlikely to succeed. Entire smaller neighborhoods were depopulated by the undead already and it was unknown if anyone on the outer layer of E-Rantel still lived.

As the remnants of Rainbow prepared for a stand, they heard a battle cry.

"Forward! For the king!"

Brita saw Warrior-Captain and his subordinates charge the Ghouls and the Greenhair undead.

"[Sixfold Slash of Light!]"

Several Ghouls have fallen apart after the attack. Several others were trampled by the horses and cut to pieces by the warriors.

But it was not all good. The men who aimed for the Greenhair were simply eviscerated by the knives it seemed to have inside its fingers. Stronoff seemed to notice it too. He charged into a duel with the powerful undead. As Brita was preparing to watch the fight unfold, she felt something move behind her. Honed by the flow of this fight, she immediately jumped to the left.

It was a good decision as the spot she was occupying seconds ago was pounced on and torn apart by a Ghoul.

These Ghouls were not the ones she used to see. Their physique was better, claws seemed longer and sharper. There was also an intense cloud of decay and illness around it that made Brita lose her strength. Yes, if Brita was naming it, she would have called it a Plague Ghoul.

As the ghoul was about to move in towards her and attack, it was hit by a magic arrow as well as some normal arrow that made it hiss.

She glanced behind her, there was a team of Silver Ranked adventurers. She could still be saved. The warrior of the group joined her in front of the Ghoul.

"I'm Peter, leader of Swords of Darkness, need some help?" the warrior, Peter, smiled.

"Y-yes"

Peter attacked from the left side and Brita took the right.

The Plague Ghoul was fairly strong, it managed to take them both on, while being shot with arrows and without any support.

Battle probably lasted a minute, but to Brita, it felt like hours. She would slash, Ghoul would dodge and counterattack. Peter and his teammates would use this as a chance to attack, forcing the Ghoul to retreat. When they were harmed, a team druid would heal them and when Brita was in danger, Peter would step in and use [Fortress] to take the attack on and prevent hear death.

Slowly, they dealt the undead enough damage, and Peter managed to behead it.

"Thank you for your help, I thought I'd die here" Brita confessed.

"No problem, we adventurers should help each other, if we are to survive this" Peter said friendly, however before he could continue, there was a massive crash.

Brita and Swords of Darkness looked to the source of that noise. The second gate was broken through, wood was splintered and metal beams which were acting as a frame were deformed greatly. There were many splinters covered in blood. It seemed that the zombies were using their bodies as a ram.

"This level of coordination…" someone muttered. Yes, it seemed that the undead were far more coordinated than they were used to.

To the side Brita could see the fight between Rainbow, Gazef Stronoff, Warrior Troop and Greenhaired undead and its Plague Ghouls come to an end. The Ghouls were all slaughtered and the 'Greenhead' as Brita called it in her head was being overwhelmed with superior team tactics Rainbow used while also supported by a powerful warrior like Gazef Stronoff and his subordinates.

The Warrior-Captain and his men were covered in slight wounds, but the undead was slowly succumbing to the combined power of the living. Finally, it lost its arm and head to the [Sixfold Slash of Light]. They were lucky that the priests from all over the city were already gathering here, to heal the wounded and repel the weaker undead.

But now that the second ring gate was broken, they would have to face off against the Warrior and Bandaged undead.

"Someone, call the Tenrou, we got to face these two together!" Moknach yelled.

Tenrou was a third Mithril Ranked adventurer team of the city. From what she heard of conversation, they were containing the undead from the graveyard. With the Kralgra gone and Rainbow exhausted and understrength, they were required to halt the dead here.

"Get the civilians out of here, form a line around the priests and mages. Form ranks men!" Stronoff was reforming their forces against the enemy.

It seemed that undead were not interested in attacking them. Suddenly, they all turned towards the graveyard and were moving there.

They seemed to avoid confrontation somehow as the small group of adventurers managed to slip by them. These adventurers were all looking bloodied and exhausted. They probably were fighting the undead in neighborhoods around the graveyard.

"Run! We must all run!" one of them screamed.

"What the hell are you talking about? Why did you abandon the positions?" Stronoff and Moknach questioned them.

"Gazef-dono, Moknach-dono, the Tenrou! The Tenrou is gone!"

Horrified silence answered him.

* * *

Momonga was still staring at what he managed to accomplish, while Khajit and his subordinates were busy either marveling at his power or just swearing the undying (literally) loyalty to him.

"Oh great unliving one! The Orb was right, you are truly the King of Death! Zuranon will forever be in your service, I'm sure of it! With the E-Rantel cell now containing so many Liches, we would be the most powerful group within the organization!" Khajit seemed halfway to kissing his legs.

Even the Clementine woman looked awed.

As Momonga was about to stop the Orb and Khajit from flattering him, he felt several mental connections he had to the Belius' army be cut. That was weird, were they being attacked? He didn't think their disguise magic should have run out already and he didn't give them any ord~. Except he did. He ordered them to get over to where he was standing when he met the wild ghost. But they were outside the city. To reach him, they had to get inside through the walls.

"[Undeath Slave Sight] he looked through the eyes of the Jack The Ripper. It was fighting a group of humans and loosing. Most humans were not all that impressive, but a couple of them seemed to use some weird skills. That combined with numbers and teamwork was enough to be overpowered.

One of them seemed to use some light attack with his sword, cutting the Jack in multiple places. When Ripper retaliated, the human somehow managed to take on the attack head-on. Several more connections were cut. He could see from the Corner of Jack's vision Plague Ghouls being killed by the human soldiers.

"Wait a minute" Momonga muttered. The building he saw from Ripper's sight looked like a shop he saw when exploring E-Rantel. It was inside the middle layer of the district. But how? He saw Jack lose his arm and then die.

Momonga cast the spell again, now on Belius. What he saw was insane. Hundreds of Squire Zombies and normal Zombies were breaking down the gate. This was no doubt already inside the city. Some zombies died from being used as ram under Belius' command. But Momonga felt no connection sever. He understood then. All the Squire Zombies were not directly summoned by him and obeyed him because he summoned their liege – Death Knight Belius. Hundreds could have died while invading the city and he wouldn't have known until some of his original undead died. It seemed his small error killed hundreds of people, maybe even destroyed a large part of the city.

Momonga should have felt horrified, but he only felt slight annoyance at his stealth being ruined by his own actions. He hoped to just drop in and see what he could learn, but it seems that he now had to take some responsibility for his actions, even if he didn't start this undead crisis.

"Umu. It seems my forces have managed to break through the Second ring walls."

"Your forces, oh supreme one?" Khajit asked.

"Yes, I had a small troop stationed outside, I called them forth when I noticed your little ritual. They are fighting a group of powerful humans near the gates"

"What? They are probably fighting Gazef and his Warrior-Troop. Taking all my fun~. Come, Lich-san, Khaji-chan, we must join the fray, maybe I could even get some trophies"

"Yes, supreme one, we should break through these humans if this city is to become the land of the Dead"

 _But I don't want this to become the land of the dead. Even if my own actions probably contributed more than all of you combined._ Momonga thought. All he wanted was to get some information on this place.

Still, he followed them, just to take care of this mess. If push comes to shove, he would just grab the Orb, Belius and teleport out of the city, back to the forest. Let the zombies and this Zuranon be slaughtered by authorities.

They were passing by the devastated streets of E-Rantel, there were corpses and the signs of battle all over the place. From what he read in the Mage Guild and understood from speaking to the Khajit, the undead would rise here when someone would die an unpleasant death, plus more powerful undead would spawn if there were many lesser undead clustered by. Considering the massacre that happened here, this place would be a spawn ground for the undead very soon, if it is nor already.

Then there was a sound of battle. When Momonga looked over, he saw Clementine fight some man in armor. He seemed to have a Mithril plate on his neck and a large sword in his hands.

She was also talking to the man, goading him probably.

Clementine's weapons were a piercing type, and they could not execute complex attacks like slashing weapons could. They were weapons that were optimized for charges. In addition, stilettos were slender and were certainly not strong enough to survive a clash with greatsword. Momonga was curious how she would fight the man now that he noticed her.

"Do you have any idea what you are doing, attacking an adventurer in the middle of this horror?! I am a member of Tenrou, I will slay you if you keep interfering with the defense of our city!" the man screamed.

"I wonder~"

Clementine had a smug, self-assured look on her face as she responded in her usual self-assured tone. All of this pointed to the fact that she had something up her sleeve.

Clementine slowly changed her posture, lowering herself into what seemed like a runner's crouch. However, her body was still upright, so she looked very strange. It might have appeared comical, but this was definitely not the sort of stance one could take lightly. And then — Clementine moved. Before Momonga's vigilant eyes, Clementine shot out like a fully compressed spring.

She sprinted right at the man. It was a charge that even Momonga, with his superhuman physical abilities, could hardly believe was possible. Like a hurricane that devoured everything in its path, Clementine closed the distance between them in an instant. She slid under the greatsword the Warrior was holding out, her physical dexterity allowing her to maintain her full speed as she moved.

She stabbed the man into his thigh. When the warrior tried to swing his sword down, Momonga saw the face-splitting grin on her face get even wider.

"[Invulnerable Fortress]."

The slender stiletto had actually blocked a hit from a greatsword that was more than ten times its mass. The stiletto should have snapped under the grand strike it had just blocked head-on. Even if it had remained intact by some miracle, it would have been knocked flying. However, it was a greatsword which bounced away, like it had struck some ridiculously strong castle wall.

The man, who was already injured, was in a bad position and Clementine pressed her advantage. She shot up as though throwing herself into a lover's embrace, Clementine rushed toward the Warrior's unguarded chest. The stiletto went straight through the armor and into his heart. The man gasped and fell.

Clementine seemed to crouch over the adventurer and grasped his mithril plate. She slowly tore it off while cheerfully humming. Then she moved to put the badge into her pouch and in doing so she threw open her coat, revealing what looked like scale mail whose individual plates had mismatched components.

However, Momonga's excellent vision saw the truth immediately. Those were not the metal plates which made up scale mail. They were countless adventurer plates. Platinum, gold, silver, iron, copper, even mithril and orichalcum. All these were the proof of all the adventurers Clementine had been killing, the trophies taken from her hunts. Innumerable vengeful groans seemed to haunt the metal plates' clinking.

However, what interested Momonga were not the trophies, which seemed to be impressive from what he listened to while traveling through the E-Rantel. What interested him was the source of Clementine's flashy moves.

"—Martial arts, huh" he muttered.

These were techniques which did not exist in YGGDRASIL. They could be said to be a warrior's magic — and they were things of which he had to be wary.

"I'm surprised you didn't enjoy yourself with him Clementine" Khajit said.

"Yes, well you see, he was too tired already, almost exhausted. If I tried to wear him down bit by bit, then sloooowly torment him once he couldn't move, he would portably pass out immediately~ What a shame, what a shame." She did look disappointed.

"You will have plenty of chances to play, there are more people up ahead" Momonga wanted to make her go and use more of her Martial Arts. It would be a good way to see how she matches up to different classes, like mages, priests and maybe even other assassin classes. Maybe the Martial Arts have some hard counters, like some other skill types.

* * *

Perote, Leader of Tenrou one of the three Mithril Ranked adventurer teams in E-Rantel, was having a hard time. He had lost one of his comrades to undead already, the rest of his team were exhausted, the soldiers were almost useless and few priests and mages who joined them were not enough to replace the losses the living took while trying to contain the undead spilling form the graveyard.

On top of that, their efforts could have been pointless. The outer city was overrun with a different force of undead, they blocked the path outside of the city. The civilians he has saved would most likely die if the living were to break out of the city. Holing up behind the Inner Wall ring could be a good idea, administrative part of the city had separate food warehouses and separate wells. But the undead would simply slaughter everyone who didn't make it through the gates and the siege could take months, if the Kingdom was slow to mobilize their forces. The food would be dedicated mostly to those who fought and to rich nobles. The rest would be starving to death.

"Erh guys, anyone saw Forda?"

Forda was the warrior of their group.

"No. Not me. Don't think so." The murmur went through everyone.

"I think I did" some unfamiliar voice rang out. Before Perote could look over, something landed in their midst. It was Forda's lucky talisman, a little trinket he liked to keep. It was covered in blood.

"In his defense, he didn't scream" The woman who said it smiled. "Not that I gave him a chance"

Everyone grasped their weapons, but the woman was faster. She held a stiletto in her hand and aimed for the closest person to her.

The thrust went through the steel helmet, along with the forehead beneath it. The body shook violently, and then collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The metal armor clanged loudly in the night.

"Aah, you are also too tired. So slow it's not even fun." The killer among them whined.

The rest of Tenrou attacked her at the same time, but she was not affected. She easily sidestepped a saber slash from Perote himself, blocked a kick aimed at her kneecap and dodged a spell. Then in midair from the dodge, she attacked with her stilettoes. One went through his right shoulder and the other one went into his comrade's throat.

Neril, Perote's friend of many long years was choking on his own blood. After so many brushes with death, so many times saving weaker humans from monsters, bandits or sometimes even both, their team was being killed by some maniac with knives. It filled Perote with rage he didn't know he had, he grasped his saber with his left hand.

"[Dull Pain]" while it could not return the full mobility to his right hand, the pain would not distract him either.

"Oooh, someone is angry~" The blonde woman sang out.

Then they charged at each other. However, Perote could feel that he was greatly outmatched. He would slash and she would dodge, but almost never counter attack all out. Only sometimes hit his wounds with punches or kicks.

"[Boost Armor], I got you." Vhena, his last team mate said from behind. She probably used up all of her remaining mana on this spell, she didn't have any when they camped out here. It was surprising she could still stand after using everything she had. The next punch he got into his injured shoulder, the spell and armor completely absorbed it.

"Tsk, I almost forgot about you~ but now that you spoilt some of my fun, I'll make sure to play with you more thoroughly" the woman called out.

When Perote tried to shield his friend from the woman, she merely slithered her way around his attacks and stabbed him into his left thigh and right kneecap. Perote could do nothing but collapse. He glared at the young woman before him. However, it was clear that Perote was just putting on a brave front. He had lost the ability to fight and the woman already killed three of his fellows. The young woman who had murdered his friends flicked her bloodstained stilettos. The ichor scattered in all directions, and the blades recovered their cold shine.

However, before she could do anything else, they heard a sound of shuffle. Vhena was approaching with a shot blade she used for self-defense.

"Get away from him" she said with angry tone.

"Hehe, quite fiery for someone who has no mana and no chances. Where does this strength come from? Do you love him? Energized by the fear of losing him?" The woman mocked.

There was an exchange of slashed and punches until the woman caught Vhena's fist with her arm. Then with a casual flick woman broke Vhena's wrist. She screamed. Perote used his left arm to furiously crawl towards them.

"I see the feelings are shared. Lemme tell ya~, here's what will happen. I will have sooo much fun with her while you watch, onii-san. Then? I will use a little mind control charm and force her to tear your throat out with her teeth. I'm sure you wanted to feel her lips touch your skin at least once~" Woman smiled after these words.

Twenty minutes later, Perote's body passed away, but his soul died much earlier. The Tenrou was no more.

* * *

Brita, Swords of Darkness and many other defenders were holed up inside the Adventurers' Guild building. They retreated there after they found out that the forces who were holding off the undead at graveyard were crushed. It seems that the undead knew it too, for they yet again changed their direction, now advancing through the city streets.

"We should counterattack and make our way to the inner gates. Third wall ring is still standing." Someone screamed.

"We will not abandon the temples to these abominations!" one of the priests answered.

"Either way, we should meet the undead in open fight, where our forces can support each other. Trying to hold individual places like this building or the temples would just let them swarm us one by one." Gazef Stronoff answered.

"The average undead in that army are many but could easily be dealt with by a group of high-level adventurers or soldiers with priests supporting them. The main issue is dealing with the two strongest undead who lead them." Ainzach was already planning their strategy.

"They are coming! Ainzach-dono! They are coming!" One of the sentries spotted the shambling mass moving towards the Guild building.

Ten or so minutes later, the defenders formed up to meet the approaching undead, melee fighters like Brita up front, archers and other ranged fighters behind. Priests, Druids and mages in small groups were spread throughout the formation.

Opposing them was a wave of Zombie Humans, Ogres and Trolls, followed by a selection of various weaker naturally spawned undead which started to prop up around the city. Above them was an entire cloud of various dark spirits. On the flanks of undead army were the black armored Undead Warrior and on the right was the massive Burly looking undead.

Facing the Burly looking undead was an elite strike team consisting out of the Rainbow, Gazef Stronoff and everyone who could be placed into Platinum-to-Adamantine Rank category.

Facing the Dark Warrior, was a holding team made of Mages, Druids and Priests who could use binding and summoning magic, they led by Theo Rakesheer, the mage Guild leader. The adventurers have reported that almost everyone killed by the Warrior seemed to come back as powerful zombie variants. Thus, it was decided that a ranged force would be better used in order to shackle this Undead Warrior, while the elite team deals with the second undead.

Facing everyone else was a wall of Adventurers and Workers below Platinum level, mercenaries, surviving city guards, even some freed brigands and various citizens who knew how to use a weapon.

The battle begun silently. There were no brave warcries or calls for bravery, they all knew this fight will decide if they lived or joined the ranks of their enemy.

* * *

If there was one thing that Death Knights could not fight, it would be a group of ranged specialists. As Momonga watched how Belius charged with the rest of the dead army, he saw how the Death Knight was suddenly under intense fire of spells, various javelins, specialized arrows and bolts. They were not too damaging or strong, but they were slowing the Death Knight down and chipping away at his armor.

The defenders were avoiding melee fight with Belius, which made sense considering how poor their performance was and how many of them were turned into zombies already. Instead, they focused on fighting lesser undead and Corpse Collector.

The Corpse Collector was faring fairly bad. The humans which faced it were relatively powerful and seemed experienced enough to easily adapt to each other's fighting style. They covered each other's mistakes well and used all the opening they could get. Belius was bogged down by all the binding spells their mages could use and was slowly drained by the incoming waves of projectiles from the human rangers. He was also attacked by every summons that was on the mortal's side: Angels, weaker Elementals, weaker Golems, etc.

Momonga would have praised their approach to battle, if not for the fact that if defenders used this tactic straight away, half the city would have been free of the undead. The battle for the undead was also worsened by the fact that buffs he provided to his summons were somewhat neutered by the priests who buffed the humans and debuffed the undead.

The lesser undead were slowly pushing the weaker humans back, but they were also taking heavy casualties from incoming ranger volleys until crashing into a wall of grimly determined defenders. Each human was fighting for survival, they were giving everything they had to this fight. Momonga honestly felt kinda inspired, not to mention he felt that many people here would have leveled up, if the game rules apply to them.

To Momonga, this was a perfect opportunity. All the humans were going all out right now, withholding nothing. He could freely observe their Magics, Martial Arts, tactics and individual strength. It seemed that the adventurers were the main users of martial arts, they also applied anti-undead oils and other countermeasures. Compared to them, normal human soldiers were quite lacking. Honestly, the knights he observed were far more impressive, he should probably be more wary of this Empire of theirs, as compared to Re-Estize kingdom that owns E-Rantel.

"Lich-san, Khaji-chan, shouldn't we interfere? You could send your High Wraiths to deal with the weakling, Khaji-chan and his minions could take care of the Magic Casters while I could have fun with Gazef Stronoff." Clementine spoke out.

Indeed, the human line would have been broken if Momonga sent out all of his spirit-type undead, not to mention Zuranon joining the fray. His actions turned them into Elder Liches, which upped their levels as well as power, since it seems that he acted as the "summoner" and the buffs he gave to all the undead he would call applied to them too. Should Momonga join the battle, he felt that one spell would have ended the whole ordeal.

 _But I don't really want all of these people to die. It was all an unfortunate mistake._ Momonga thought.

"We shall see, for now you will hold position. Khajit, please do suppress the Magic casters on their left flank. It is time to test your and your follower's new abilities" Momonga said as composed as possible, hoping that she would accept his authority as well as the rest of Zuranon did.

" _Corpse Collector, take as many of them as you can. High Wraiths, cover Belius_ " Momonga gave out the mental commands.

Momonga watched as the battle shifted. No longer tasked with winning the battle, but just killing Corpse Collector started making more openings to deal damage to those who were attacking him. He managed to bring down several men including two members of Rainbow, until he was too damaged by the Martial Arts and finally, Moknach smashed its head in. But while the right flank was too busy dealing with the Corpse Collector, the left flank was suddenly hit with multiple [Fireballs] and [Electrospheres]. The magic casters were stunned and those who survived started casting the defensive spells. Belius, supported by the High Wraiths smashed into the center of human army and did what he did best, slaughter people. Suddenly, the line was pushed back, people retreated, sometimes trampling over each other. The wounded were abandoned and many exhausted people were trying to crawl away from the battlefield.

Suddenly, Belius and his escort were counter attacked by a group of mishmash looking warriors, who were led by a person Momonga knew killed Jack the Ripper. Human was fairly impressive and seemed to use his light attack more often than the others could use their martial arts, except for Clementine.

"Is that person Gazef Stronoff?" Momonga decided to ask.

"Iiindeeed, one of the five people I knew could take me on in this region" Clementine answered.

"Oh?"

"Yes, according to the info from those chaps in the Windflower, there's only five people in this country who can give me a good fight. Gazef Stronoff. Gagaran of Blue Rose. Luisenburg Albelion of Red Drop. Brain Unglaus. Also, the retired Vestia Croft Di Lofan… though none of them could beat me even if they went all-out. Not even if I was without the magic items from my country."

 _Windflower?_ _Is that some sort of Intelligence Agency? Or an information broker group like that guild in Yggdrasil? There is so much unknow to me._ Momonga did not enjoy stumbling in the dark, even during his first days in the game, where everything was unknown. It left him too exposed, too easy to catch off guard. Too easy to kill, just like back then.

As Momonga watched the humans be slowly routed, he couldn't help but slightly sympathize. He knew how desperate fight you can't win could feel. His early days in Yggdrasil were filled with them, until he met Touch Me.

 _Touch Me… Touch Me would have sided with them and fought until his last breath. Just like this guy seems to do right now_.

By this point, Gazef person was fighting Belius head on. It seemed that Belius was also completely engulfed in fighting Gazef, even ignoring those wounded he would usually turn into squire zombies to increase the chances. How intriguing, if not inspiring.

 _Indeed, a final hero to face the darkness, that's so Touch Me…_

* * *

 _They were all going to die._

This thought was filling Brita's head for several last minutes and was slowly turning into certainty within her heart. Most of Gazef's Warrior Troop was dead. So were majority of higher ranked adventurers, that even Ainzach-dono had to take up his old equipment. Moknach was the last standing Mithril Adventurer and highest one on active duty within the city. He was also probably not going to live long, based on that lifeless look in his eyes.

The magic casters under Rakesheer-dono were locked in an epic spell battle with someone she couldn't see because of all the mist, smoke and dust in the air. While Gazef-dono was locked in equally epic duel with the Undead Warrior. Both fights the living seem to be losing.

She has fallen back to the Swords of Darkness as the defenders were slowly being routed. Their ranger, Lukrut, swore that if they fled, he could guide them through the backstreets to the southern gate, furthest from the one undead used. If they are lucky enough, there would be few enough undead to let them slip out of the city.

As she contemplated the question of sacrificing her life or adventurer's honor, however, the fighting stopped. All the undead have suddenly retreated and just stood there, even the Undead Warrior. As some were trying to understand what was happening our just using the time of respite to recover a bit, everyone could hear an irregular clacking sound, like something tapping the ground and occasional stone.

Clack, clack. The sounds gradually became louder and now sounds of multiple steps accompanied them. Few moments later, the source of that sound showed itself. It was a group of figures that just by themselves could probably turn the surviving defenders into mincemeat.

Except for some odd woman, the whole group consisted of Elder Liches. Their appearance varied, so did their equipment, but even fighting a single one would be challenging for a Platinum Ranked adventurer, and relatively winnable for a Mithril-Ranked adventurer.

They were probably behind this whole undead invasion. Elder Liches were rulers. Sometimes they ruled over an undead horde and occasionally traded with living beings. The fact that they managed to infiltrate the city was horrifying, but the power of this attack now made sense.

Then, the living were hit with a feeling of dread, similar to the one she felt back in the tavern yesterday morning. But this one was many times more intense. While that one felt like chill and suffocation, this felt like deepest coldest winter and a thousand kilogram of steel pressing on your whole body.

"I applaud your effort and skills, to kill so many of my servants, including a Corpse Collector and a Jack The Ripper, quite impressive for local humans" The voice rang out. And a single, probably most powerful Lich stepped out.

It looked far more regal than the rest of the group, but also far more dangerous. Twin points of crimson light burned brightly within the empty orbits of a bleached skull. It wore an intricately detailed black robe, and it resembled nothing so much as an incarnation of death, born from the darkness of another world. It's fleshless hands were holding some sort of a black stone, instead of a staff that the rest of Liches held, but if one looked closely, they would see that each finger had a beautiful ring on it.

"You, in particular even managed to hold off my Death Knight by yourself"

The Lich continued, gesturing to Gazef Stronoff. Then it cast some spells and two more War~ Death Knights materialized out of the pile of corpses that lay on the ground and flanked the original Death Knight.

"But as you can see, it is all for naught."

 _It can spawn these things just like that_. A horrifying thought rang out in everyone's heads. Combined with already crushing terror the Lich generated, Brita and many more people were about to faint or simply give up and commit suicide.

And then, the pressure ended.

* * *

"But I am not interested in simply killing you all. Instead, I shall spare your lives in exchange for a service. I want you to deliver a message. In every city that you visit or pass by I want you to declare: Zuranon has laid claim to E-Rantel. This place now belongs to those who rule over the undead. Those who attempt to attack this city shall join its undying legions and serve Zuranon for the rest of eternity. And if you doubt this claim, witness the power no mere mortal human magician can wield, a 7th Tier Spell" Momonga pointed at a small array of abandoned buildings to the side of the road. "[Maximize Magic: Napalm]"The buildings disappeared in a massive pillar of fire that blocked out everyone's vision. Then, all over the place burned out pieces of wood and stone started landing, the remnants of the buildings' walls and roofs.

All the humans were staring in shock at it, exactly as Momonga hoped. His small speech and demonstration were meant to do two things: put all the blame on Zuranon and persuade these people to leave the city without fighting, now that it was obvious who would lose. For all intents and purposes, he would honor Touch Me's principles, while remaining an unknown factor to the authorities, but could also take all the benefits of conquering this city, which is: an unlimited access to local archives and maybe even Zuranon's own agents like Clementine who knew more than him right now.

He then reignited his [Despair Aura I].

"Now go, mortals, run and spread the message I ordered you to tell." However, as Momonga planned to turn back, heard a shaky voice.

"Wait, Elder Lich-san! Wait! My name is Theo Rakesheer, I was the local Mage Guild leader. Would you teach me how to cast 7th Tier Magic? I am willing to join Zuranon as an acolyte, even hand over my possessions to you. Not enough? Then I formally offer my loyalty to you as the new ruler of E-Rantel!"

 _Say what? Me? New Ruler?_ Momonga had little interest to rule this place. All he wanted to do was to find out everything about this place, maybe some background info. _However, wouldn't having a base of operations like this be beneficial? And taking people like him as henchmen could be a good source of info outside of books and Zuranon. In fact, he as a Guildmaster probably wrote some of these books and knew what was not put there and what was added purely for flair._ But there were some benefits to taking over too. Just as long as no one could trace him until he was standing firmly on his own feet. Zuranon and the Orb already accepted his authority, why not use this all until he found his way out?

"Well then, I accept. Now hear me again mortals, those who wish to learn true depth of magic, to them the gates of E-Rantel are open. Now, vacate this city, I give you 6 hours to leave, then I shall unleash my undead once more" Momonga regally turned and started going back towards the Magician Guild, where he could prevent the mages from stealing or destroying all these records and books.

He had a lot of research to do.

* * *

 **I always thought that this could have been an alternative way the Sorcerer Kingdom could have been founded, if Momonga had different priorities.**


	6. Taking the Reins

**Taking the Reins.**

 **I don't own Overlord.**

* * *

The retreat was a bitter affair for the people of E-Rantel. There was just too much they could not move out of the city in mere 6 hours. In medieval-like world, people did not travel much because the cost, time and risks of going somewhere were not worth it for an average person. Magic made it easy for some, but not for most. Now a third of an entire city had to immediately evacuate. Many people were abandoning the houses their family owned for at least two generations. They could not simply burn down what they couldn't carry either as the Liches dictated that treasury, city archives, library and many other things be handed over undamaged and untouched. That made humans leaving the E-Rantel wonder, what else could undead consider of worth to them. What if burning down something triggered the wrath of Zuranon? The massacre would restart and the humans would undoubtedly all fall. Thus, civilians were trying to only take necessities and either the least valuable or most valuable things they had. Scenes of someone just standing there, choosing what to take and what to abandon with bitter expression could be seen all over the town in the first two hours.

Then came the matter of transport.

Luckily for the people fleeing the E-Rantel, it seems that during the battle the undead were completely uninterested in the animals which were kept all over the city. Thus, where the humans died in droves, horses, oxen and other animals that could be used as transport survived and the proportion of humans/pack animals has changed drastically. Thus, they had enough of them to carry most of the women, children and baggage.

Unfortunately, it still didn't go completely without the accidents. When deciding what would go where and who would have to simply walk by the columns rather than ride in carts, there were many conflicts. Someone would insist that it's their wife or lover that absolutely should not go on foot, thus someone had to switch places. There were many fights and scuffles.

Some nobles just assumed that their affairs were separated from the rest of the E-Rantel, thus they would just put their belongings on the wagons and carriages they used to own and leave the city as they did for many trips before. They were in for a rude awakening when angry mobs simply took these carriages, threw out the nobles and put their relatives inside instead. Once loyal guards would usually just ignore what happened or join the crowds. Few were willing to risk a twenty to one fight with the mobs. By the contrast, risking the possible wrath of a noble was preferable to facing inevitable death from the new owners of the city.

Of course, there were also opposite feats of ingenuity and selflessness where Mages would put weight lessening charms left and right, priests would exhaust their mana reserves casting stamina enhancing buffs, adventurers would spare their last potions to heal someone wounded. Bakers would give out all of their stock to the people, so everyone had something to eat during the trip. Craftsmen put their all into fixing and reinforcing the wagons, carriages, carts and anything else that was used to carry people and baggage.

To Momonga these actions of cooperation, among the usual chaos and bickering that was humanity, were almost inspiring. Almost, if not for the fact it took them an army of undead and a threat of utter annihilation to get here. If coordination on the level like this was present before he ordered for them to leave, the city could have withstood his little assault. Indeed, these humans had the resources and skills to overwhelm the Belius' army. The battle near the gate showed that a Mithril level team could potentially hold off his Mid-Tier Undead. Add in the priests, mages and that Gazef person and you can see a path to victory.

 _It is the same logic as the one behind dungeon raids. A dungeon boss and all of its minions would always have more combined power than the raiding party. In fact, the boss almost always has more power than at the very least two individual members of the party combined. If the ones who raided the dungeon came at the boss piecemeal, they would inevitably be wiped out. Only through coordination came success, same for companies and civilization in general. In fact, it can be said that Belius and his small troop perfectly executed their attack by killing of humans before they united, especially since he didn't even guide them._

By creating superficial divides on top of natural ones, the people of this city and Momonga suspected this whole country, weakened themselves and made their overall achievements worthless. It seemed that in the fantasy world, humanity stays deeply flawed.

 _I can understand being divided by the level of wealth, just like we back IRL were, but some of these nobles are far poorer than those merchants I saw when scouting, yet they act as if they are somehow merchants' betters._

Of course, this whole philosophical analysis of the human society was just a way for Momonga to occupy his thoughts before he had to face the task ahead of him. In a way, he was trying to postpone thinking about the main issue he had at the moment.

But as Momonga was looking at the last columns leaving E-Rantel, he couldn't help but eventually turn his attention to it.

 _What the hell am I supposed to do now? Taking the city as a temporary base of operations sounded good before I actually thought about it. I never ruled over anything, even the guild had the voting system, everyone was equal. I merely proposed things here or carried out the decision there._

Momonga was feeling slight headache coming up. He massaged his non-existent temples while staring off the city wall that he used as an observation point. After that small performance Momonga decided to be alone for a few hours, to clear his thoughts and formulate some sort of plan on how to move forward.

 _I could use the voting here, but the whole point of taking over was so that I could take advantage of E-Rantel's resources and information network Zuranon had in order to find some sort of explanation for why I was transported, or to find people like me. With democratic process taking place, I would have to either make my actions sound beneficial to them all, or somehow bribe the other's votes for my own selfish operations._

To many of the leaving citizens it looked as if Death itself was sending them off, almost saying 'We will be seeing each other again soon'. If one were also to consider the result of people abandoning their homes and moving to the new city, this promise would no doubt come true. Many of these refugees would not find a job, many would be forced to a position close to poverty and many would not even reach their destinations due to disease, monsters or raiders. The atmosphere within the convoys leaving E-Rantel was highly bitter and forlorn.

But Momonga's own internal conflict made him completely overlook the humans leaving the city and perils they would face.

 _If I were to try a more direct control over the resources and the operations, however… I have already kind of usurped the leadership here, with my participation in the ritual and my decision to let the humans leave. These fellows didn't argue with me, but that could have been only because of me having a superior military power with Belius' and Orb of Death's armies under my control. They probably don't know the level difference between us. Should I try to take over more control, they would become more and more unsatisfied and would rebel the moment my forces are weakened. Either way I would have to find some means to please Clementine and Khajit, be it for votes or for loyalty._

Now that he thought about two most important members of E-Rantel's Zuranon, he started wondering about the organization as a whole.

 _Clementine said that Zuranon is ruled by twelve executives like her, among whom there are several Elder Liches. Khajit said that he is a member of twelve disciples. But both didn't go into it in detail since it was just a side comment. Are these groups the same thing? Do I have 2 out of Zuranon's leadership under my influence or just one? Does the fact that Khajit and his acolytes are under my command as their summoner make me an executive too? Did I just replace Khajit as an executive or did I just create a thirteen seat?_

Deep in his though Momonga made his was down the walls and now was strolling to the previously lively streets. Now they looked deserted, even the areas were battles never took place somehow looked trashed. The naturally spawned undead were shuffling left and right in small groups, slight mist seemed to slowly roll through the streets. Momonga saw similar mist in the graveyard but didn't pay it much attention back then. Now, the mist was almost clinging to the ground on almost every street

 _Twelve executives… that almost makes Zuranon sound like a company, despite them essentially being a terrorist organization… Now that's just great, Satoru, an average salaryman somehow was radicalized into joining a cult which carried out terrorist attacks and desecrated graveyards. What would have news outlets wrote about this. No, better look at this as a company…_

 _Yes, E-Rantel branch of Zuranon was preparing for expansion and now thanks to a merger of sorts I'm appointed as a manager here. However, I also did something no other branch seemed to do, openly called out to people with the promise of knowledge sharing. Would that make this more than a mere branch? Maybe a franchise? We use the same name and modus operandi: summoning and directing the undead but are sort of independent._

 _Still, the Executives and their cells are almost autonomous from what I understood. Maybe like a conglomerate then, they have divisions that do various things but have same name and are dealing with the same business: spreading the undeath, but independent leadership that merely coordinates with each other, rather than having central leadership. And now I'm appointed as a manager or some sort who is meant to oversee the expansion and reorganization of the E-Rantel division of Zuranon after I merged my own assets with them?_

A slight chuckle escaped Momonga. He was currently already walking through the previously civilian portion of the city. Surprisingly to him, some houses were still inhabited by the surviving citizens of E-Rantel. These people could be divided into two categories:

First being those who had nowhere to go, who only had a chance for having a home here and going somewhere is just a prolonged suicide to them since they would probably just not find any jobs in other cities and die in squalor. So, they tempted fate in undead city, since the death here would probably at least be faster than there.

The second group was actually an array of people with differing interests, but they all could be summed up as deviants. People who were fascinated by the undead, or by the prospect of powerful magic, or by the desire to keep witnessing the catastrophe that happened in the city, but they were all drawn to stay within the city walls, with their conviction also supported by the apparent defection of the local Mage Guild leader Theo Rakesheer.

Momonga made sure to order the undead not to attack humans until attacked first, so they were somewhat out of danger, if one were to exclude the possibility of Clementine becoming bored again.

 _If I were to consider myself a new manager, these two, Clementine and Khajit would be senior employees who have the most influence and experience in this company. I would need to give them more privileges but also pay them more scrutiny to avoid them sabotaging my position. However, that Theo person and his own disciples, they are like interns and contractors who are likely to leak the trade secrets outside, I need to keep an eye on them too._

Momonga gave out a mental command to his Wraiths to start silently shadow Theo and other lower level mages.

 _Even though I acted as summoner for Khajit and his acoly- no, they are no longer acolytes I believe, even weakest Lich among them is above level twenty and can use 3_ _rd_ _tier and even few 4_ _th_ _tier spells, which is considered fairly powerful here. Anyway, even if I acted as the summoner during their ritual, it doesn't mean they would still be as loyal as the normal undead summons. They could betray me, based on their beliefs from before transformation. Only those who I summoned from the scratch should have my trust._

 _Still, that leaves Clementine, her fighting style reminds me of rogues, so she could probably detect low level Wraiths if they were to shadow Khajit. If only I could just use Ghosts to [Posses] someone again, Clementine should have no way to find out about it and even if she did, only Priests should be able to dispel the possession. However, I cannot use Ghosts for them._

While Momonga used Ghosts to spy on local guards and citizens for several days before entering E-Rantel, this way could not be used on people with special abilities or magic. Problem was, the [Possess] ability low level Ghosts had didn't allow the target to use any of their abilities or spells while possessed. They could only use the Stats the possessed had and do basic things like punch, watch, listen, walk. That was okay since the local guards and citizens were incredibly weak so were unlikely to have any useful abilities and Momonga didn't need them to do anything extraordinary like use Martial Arts or cast spells anyway, only walk around watching the situation and alert him through the mental link. Whatever remained of the Ghosts he had now were imbedded into several humans within the retreating army. This way Momonga wanted to get some spies into cities the humans would visit.

 _If only I had access to Shadow Demons, I could have a more extensive spy network_.

While in terms of stealth abilities Ghosts and Shadow Demons were somewhat equal, the Shadow Demon had several advantages in terms of scouting.

First, the person, in whose shadow the Shadow Demon was hiding still retained all of their knowledge and abilities thus they would not attract as much suspicion, while Ghosts took over and used the body like a mere puppet without any knowledge or powers. Though a well-directed possessed could be utilized to scout out areas more independently, compared to Shadow Demon that usually relied on the host's movements, the problem was that not everyone could be properly possessed by such a weak undead and those who could be usually couldn't go into more restricted areas. Indeed, it would be weird if a peasant tried to go inside a palace of sorts.

The second was that an average Shadow Demon had more intelligence and flexibility than an average Ghost. This way, in the world where the NPCs were sentient and sapient, Momonga believed that a Shadow Demon would probably exhibit more initiative than a Ghost when trying to collect the information, being able to shift from one person's shadow to another and to judge who is a better source of information.

While there was way to overcome the first problem with higher level undead like a Dybbuk, higher level demons and devils that specialized in Stealth and Scouting would still be smarter and more capable than an undead of similar level and specialization. As devs put it, the tradeoff of perfect obedience for Undead is the lower usefulness of their abilities. On the other hands, while Demons and Devils had superior abilities, they were often unruly and harder to control.

With the question of betrayal not solvable for a moment, Momonga forced himself finally turn his thoughts to matter of actually ruling the city/branch. By this point he made it to the gate into the administrative part of E-Rantel, beside the third ring of walls.

 _All right, what would a manager do when just taking over. Right, check out the inventory._

Momonga proceeded to use [Create Middle Tier Undead, Elder Lich] five times essentially draining his remaining pool of uses by half.

"Right, I want you to check out the contents of all the warehouses within this city. Spawn skeletons to act as a musc- ehm, the working force if you need, but I need the list of items and their quantity as soon as possible, write the results down."

Summoned monsters were granted a portion of their summoners' thoughts and knowledge, so they could immediately take action according to their master's will right after being summoned. They could tell friend from foe, of course. This way, they could be utilized when fighting straight away, knowing they master's full intentions from a few spoken words.

"Now, for the budget…"

Yet again Momonga used [Create Mid-Tier Undead, Elder Lich] five more times and five more Elder Liches were spawned.

"I want you to collect and count all the money you can find, start with the Mayor's Manor, I ordered them to surrender the city treasury, but there is no reason not to double-check."

* * *

"We would like to catalogue the items in your guild's warehouse, if you have an index or a record book of sorts please hand it over, that would help us quite a bit." The raspy voice said.

If there was one thing Theo Rakesheer, (former?) Guildmaster of Mages Guild did NOT expect to hear when an Elder Lich with a small army of Skeleton Warriors appeared at the doors of his Guild, it was that phrase. He expected the Zuranon to request some sort of a sign of commitment to the cause like a blood oath or a ritualistic sacrifice and prepared for them, but a review of his stocks was completely out of his calculations.

"Ehm, I do have the last records of our warehouse contents, but why would you need them, excuse me, I don't know your name"

The Lich was silent for a moment, it looked like it blanked out, then its gaze refocused on Theo.

"My name is Auditor C now, as for why, the Supreme One ordered it, so all the warehouses within the city would be catalogued" it took the record from Theo's hands "Different teams with similar tasks might come here, be prepared."

With these words the Lich, Auditor C, moved towards the guild warehouse with a small army of Skeleton Warriors following behind. Bewildered, Theo simply watched as they gingerly opened the warehouse gates and pulling out the items inside, cataloguing them and then comparing the catalogue to the records he provided them.

As Theo watched the scene unfold, he could not help himself but marvel at the perfect synchronization of Skeleton Warriors' movements. While normally undead are associated with frail or shambling mass of walking corpses, these were no doubt enhanced and when guided, could perfectly execute almost any command.

He could see similar scene happening down the road, where some shop's warehouse was being catalogued too. They had to check only a few items and thus finished fairly fast, then they merely continued onward to the other street.

 _If one were to ignore the fact these are reanimated corpses of some citizens, I wonder if we could have saved so much time and money using the undead for tasks like this. These streets could have been repaved in a matter of days, the walls could be disassembled and rebuilt in a month._

Of course, he expected that the undead were not too different from normal summons. Thus, only those who had an understanding of what they want to do and imagination to visualize it could effectively use such a workforce.

 _However, with an Elder Lich that is not limited by mere decades, how much knowledge they could possess, what areas they could cover in a hundred years? Magic, Alchemy, History, Philosophy, maybe even crafts like Blacksmithing and Construction. Just like dragons, they could be masters of all trades at some point._

Then Theo heard the sound of staff striking the ground and many bony legs walking towards him. A different Lich with a similar army of skeletons approached him again. The skeletons were a bit less in terms of number, but they seemed to possess even better physique, maybe higher abilities too. They looked to be carrying some bags that made clinking sounds when they walked.

"Hello, this one's name is Auditor H, the Supreme One ordered us to assess the budget available to the city, please hand over all the money you have" the Lich said.

The skeletons in the meantime were directed towards the counter where the Mages Guild clerks would usually store the profits they made during the day. They started cleaning out all the coins which were stored in the cashier area and putting these coins into the bags based on which metal they were made.

Theo has previously offered all he owned to Zuranon, but he still was a bit surprised at the request, especially considering that the Lich proceeded to take the money from all of Theo's remaining guildmates and disciples.

Then Auditor H suddenly stopped. He also looked to be blanked out just like the previous Auditor C did when asked about the name.

 _Maybe they are communicating with their superiors this way?_

"You are requested to join the short briefing session with the Supreme One, the session will start in an hour." With these words Auditor H returned to its work.

"Eh?"

* * *

The "Briefing" as it was called by the Auditor H was happening in what used to be the Mayor's Residence. It was a lavish home worthy of the one who ruled the city, but it was not the most impressive building in E-Rantel, nor was it the most defensible one. The location was most likely picked in order to underscore the passing of power from the Mayor to the Liches.

If Theo was to theorize about what this so-called 'Briefing' was about, it would probably to reassert Zuranon's control over the city, its treasures and resources. While Theo was not technically a ruler, as a leader he knew the importance of consolidating power.

If he was lucky, they would also state their further plans and overall goals, now that they have such a large city as a spawning ground for the undead. E-Rantel was located on the border of three different human nations and divided from the fourth one by Katze plains, normally a barrier that had to be crossed cautiously, but for those who used necromancy it was probably not a barrier at all.

From this position, they could start sending out small hordes of undead to villages and small towns in all three nations, wiping them out and raising the dead to attack the next settlement. Of all three nations around, only Slane Theocracy to the south has a capacity to effectively intercept such undead hordes before they start a massacre, as they did in their constant war with various demihumans races and Elves, all of which preferred hit and run attacks.

As he approached the supposed Briefing place, he noticed three Death Knights - massive hulking undead he never heard of until now acting as the guards. If one also counted the fact that one of them managed to go toe to toe with the Gazef Stronoff, a man who was said to be within the realm of Heroes, above even adamantine level adventurers, one could only shudder at the thought of several of these things rampaging through the land. Unburdened by the illness or exhaustion they could slaughter their way through an entire country easily, killing entire settlements just by themselves.

 _And If my fears are right, they would be capable to spread death and mayhem to several nations at the same time._

With these heavy though Theo wandered into the building and down the corridor. He knew this building well as he often came for an audience, similarly to the other honorable patrons of the city.

 _I wonder what they think of me now, probably nothing too good. Well it's not like I'm doing this to be praised by the masses. As long as we succeed, I'd be happy._

When he entered into the place that used to be Mayor's audience chamber adjacent to the secretary's office, he saw that everyone else seemed to be there already.

On his left he could see a young woman wearing a set of light armor that looked to be made up of multiple adventurer plates, she was slumped in the armchair in the corner of the room. She seemed to be completely focused on cleaning her blades, not showing any reaction to Theo entering the room.

 _But those plates, there are mithril and orichalcum plates in here. There is no way a person who managed to kill so many adventurers is not watching everyone's every step._

At the back end of the room, some sitting behind a massive meeting table, some doing other activity were multiple Elder Liches. They could be divided into two groups, one group seemed to surround an Elder Lich dressed in a reddish robe, with a skull amulet around its neck. They were mostly sitting behind the table, quietly discussing something.

Second group was clustering around an Elder Lich who seemed to be the leader here. Lich lacked the skin or flesh, unlike every other one of its kind here, it was also garbed into an incredibly expensive looking robe and on its body, Theo could see multiple luxurious accessories like rings. This group seemed to be dealing with the paperwork as the 'Supreme One' seemed to be compiling whatever reports were given to him.

As soon as Theo entered its point of view, the Supreme One looked in his direction and seemed to give out some silent command. All the other Liches stopped whatever they were doing and took places around the meeting table.

 _Wait a second, back then I only counted less than a dozen of them. Now there are at least twenty of them. Just how many Elder Liches Zuranon managed to sneak into this place?_

"Well then, let us begin our short briefing" the Supreme One started. Despite looking less human than any other Lich within the area, its voice sounded incredibly human, there was no rasping sound, it didn't invoke the goosebumps one would expect when talking to the undead lord.

"Today I would like for us to lay down the plans for future expansion of Zuranon within this region. But before we proceed, I believe it is time for us to introduce ourselves, as a host of this meeting I should start first. To my left sits one of the Twelve Disciples, Khajit-san here" _Supreme One_ gestured to the red-robed Lich "and Clementine-san" the undead gestured towards the young woman "performing a certain undead ritual. Our newcomer is Theo Rakesheer, you probably know enough about him for us to not need too long of a ceremony."

The Supreme One seemed to shuffle some papers for a moment.

"Umu. Anyway, since the introductions are out of the way let us proceed, now that the city of E-Rantel is under our control I believe it is time for us to establish the direction we as a group should move forward. In order for Zuranon's expansion to continues smoothly, we first must think about scalability of our operations within the city and region."

"Scalability?"

"Yes, while the current number of our intelligent members such as Elder Liches should be enough to handle the undead we have right now, as more basic undead would spawn, we would require more minds to direct them efficiently. And while I can spawn more Elder Liches just like I did today and there is a chance more Liches would spawn naturally, I am unwilling to leave it up to the chance. For that purpose, I extended the invitation to Rakesheer-san here and his fellow arcane magic casters."

"Oh, Supreme One, do you mean-" a Lich apparently called Khajit said something for the first time.

"Yes, I believe they are capable of becoming the next generation of Zuranon members in the future. I directed my servants here to perform an _audit_ of the basic resources we currently possess. They should be sufficient to start manufacturing the spell tomes, manuals and guides for using necromancy. I want to create a general repository of sorts for arcane knowledge, mostly necromancy and based on it, I believe we would be able to spread our magic art and most importantly followers all over the world."

 _If I'm honest with myself, this does sound something I would have enjoyed having when I just started learning magic._

"Do you truly believe such thing to be possible? Ehm, Supreme One?" Theo could help but call out.

"Hm, Supreme One is not exactly a title nor a position name. King of Death is not a title I want either. I believe it would be best if I assumed a different position for all of our sake. Hm, we do have two Executives here already, making a new executive would be weird even for the most clandestine corporations…" the Lich seemed to mutter to himself for a few moments until he seemed to come to a decision.

"Well, to make it simple just call me, yes. Just call me the Chief Executive Momonga or simply Momonga would do too."

* * *

 **This Chapter was actually longer, but apparently there is Clementine content coming out very soon with an OVA of Pleiades, I decided to just put out what would not be changed in any way, such as Momonga going full Zuranon Inc. Sorry for a filler, can't just jump to my next idea without some filling here or there.**


	7. Echoes

Echoes

"The slightest push, the smallest touch, sends echoes throughout life. Even an act of kindness may have more severe repercussions than you know or can see…" - Kreia from Kotor describing Momonga's/Ainz's entire career.

* * *

Great Forest of Tob, for many decades was a potential source of both great misery and great bounty for humans living near it. Its inhabitants were various demihumans and beasts which often preyed upon small traveler bands and villages. But at the same time, the forest served as a source for various herbs and its very inhabitants constituted a great deal of business for adventurers who took on escort and extermination jobs. However, the shady reputation of the forest made it a great location for a somewhat different kind of business…

"You know, we could go in any other direction that is not a humid and dark forest."

"Shut up, will ya?"

A group of men could be seen creeping their way through the woods. They were all armed and armored, though the complete lack of uniformity in their equipment was easily evident from a mere glance. There was no banner or emblem for them to show affiliation either. An observer would instantly recognize them as mercenaries or brigands, though there was often no difference between the two. They were a detachment of the mercenary band known as the Death Spreading Brigade. They had a mishmash appearance, but there were many among them who could be called grizzled veterans. They spent their time between employments by robbing various travelers on the roads between E-Rantel and the rest of Re-Estize Kingdom.

It was several days since the Undead took control over the fortress city of E-Rantel. Abandonment of E-Rantel by its population resulted in mixed outcome for the Death Spreading Brigade. On one hand, many refugees ended up being robbed by the group, as small fractions of them broke off from the convoys set up by the retreating adventurers and soldiers. On the other hand, the fact that undead ruled the city now meant that normal traffic that would usually pass through the roads adjacent to it stopped. And while that meant that there were no more Adventurer patrols that could hunt the Brigade, there was also no income for them.

So, their leadership decided that change in the targets must happen. And so here they were, preparing to raid a village on the furthest edges of Marquis Pespea's domain. It was unlikely that more than a hundred peasants were living in there.

"It seems people are only waking up right now. There is smoke coming from the chimneys, but I don't see much movement from here." The man closest to the edge of the trees reported.

Normally peasants tended to wake up with the rising sun so that they would not waste even an hour worth of daylight. They would then have to prepare some sort of breakfast and thus would use the fireplaces inside their houses. Many members of Death Spreading Brigade were former peasants who either left their villages in search of a better life or were conscripted into the Royal Army and then deserted, thus they knew the village lifestyle well.

The Brigade men were slowly making their way towards the village, intent on catching the inhabitants by surprise. Indeed, the easiest way for them to handle this was to attack the villagers before they would leave their homes, preventing unneeded fights and bloodshed. Living hostages had many more uses to the likes of Death Spreading Brigade. Young women and children could be easily sold off to the right clients and men could be press ganged into the ranks through threatening their loved ones.

"Wait I think I see someone is coming here"

In the shade between some homes, several figures seemed to shuffle something that looked like crates and large sacks. Suddenly one of the figures stopped and seemed to be staring in their direction. Then it immediately straightened and turned to another figure in the shadow.

"Alright, time for sneaking is over, get 'em boys!"

Now that they were probably detected, there was no point of wasting time. The brigands charged towards the buildings, trying to clear the distance fast, before someone might raise the alarm or run away.

Except-

"Arms up! We got guests!" a voice called out from the shadows and a dozen of equally well armed men sprung up to meet the first Brigade members. Steel clashed with steel, arrows flew from the house windows and more guards ran out of the buildings with weapons in hand. Some of the people even used Martial Arts and specialized equipment.

"Huh, this is no ordinary village." A man with blue hair, wearing a chain shirt and armed with a rare Katana blade muttered eyeing the opposition.

 _This is not a peasant militia. These are experienced sellswords with all kinds of skills. What kind of place could have hired so many to just stand around and carry boxes?_

Then he had to swat away a crossbow bolt that flew at him from the roof of a bigger house.

 _Gotta deal with the rangers before they can cause trouble._

Brigade's own rangers were only lining up at this point and they would have disadvantage of lower ground.

With a few quick steps and an enhanced jump, the Katana wielder was upon the crossbowmen, quickly beheading the closest one before he could reload. The following was less like a scuffle and more like carving up a fried pig as he chopped everyone on the roof into pieces. By that point the fight on the ground was in full swing. The Brigade had approximately 70 members, but only half of them went out on this job. The defenders had two dozen fighters, plus they had an advantage of the rangers shooting from the buildings, where they would be hard to reach.

 _Who's the strongest down there? These guys only dulled the damn blade._

"Who the hell are you people? Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Some plump man screamed from the backlines while surrounded by two best armored swordsmen.

 _These two seem the strongest._

The blue haired man jumped down, cushioning the fall by dropping on a magic caster of some kind while also landing right in front of the leader and his guards breaking his neck. The added bonus was the cracking sound of the mage's neck being broken.

"Group's called Death Spreading Brigade, not that it matters much. As for what we're doing, well its rather obvious isn't it?" he said while also taking the stance he used for the Martial Art.

The guards rushed at him well coordinating their attacks, one blade coming from below and the other from above. Using his [Field] Brain detected their moves before they even properly began, but he didn't dodge as all he needed was a single slash.

His Katana sang and two heads flew into the air followed by burst of blood. Both guards fell like puppets whose strings had been cut. The leader looked horrified but didn't make any movements as if he decided to pretend being a statue.

"Tell your lord to send better fighters next time. This is not even a proper workout for us." Brain told him and turned to the rest of the fight. "Maybe that Warrior Captain of yours can make a visit"

The rest of Brigade men finally caught up to them and broke through the sellswords. Now they needed to root out the ones inside the buildings. But Brain didn't care much about them. What he was curios about was the contents of the sacks.

These people were hired to do something important. And depending on how important it is, they could send even stronger people to take the contents back. Maybe some Knights or even Workers and Mercenaries.

This was the primary reason Brain even set out on job like this one. While it was true that the income stopped, but at the same time they made lots of money on all the people they captured and/or robbed. He could easily live several years on what he already saved. There was little reason for him to participate in a mundane task like pillaging some peasants. Except…

For quite a time now, Brain's actions were guided by a single purpose. Everything he did, at almost every moment:

When he trained ceaselessly, honing both his skills and his body.

When he learned about magic and furthered his knowledge.

When he refused cushy bodyguard employment offers from powerful nobles.

When he focused purely on fighting humans, ignoring profitable position as high-level adventurer.

He had only one aim in mind.

That was to wipe away his earlier shame and avenge his defeat. His only defeat, at the hands Gazef Stronoff, who was now the Kingdom's Warrior-Captain. Gazef was also considered by many to be the mightiest warrior in the surrounding nations.

There was only one way to improve his fighting skills, to get into more life and death situations. At this point repeating kata and participating in the spars was only a good way for him to stretch his muscles and keep up the fit state of his body. By only fighting all out with intent to kill he could push himself forward bit by bit. And it wasn't like merely slaughtering peasants worked for him either. He felt like he'd need to kill a thousand or two just to get a slightly stronger. No, he needed to constantly face combatants on at least the level of Gold adventurers.

 _And now I see why these guys were here._

While chests contained coinage of various kind, the sacks contained very familiar plants. Well, familiar to those who dabbled into the underground of Re-Estize Kingdom. It was the raw ingredient plant of the illegal and most prevalent drug in the Kingdom, Black Dust also called Laira Powder.

 _Well things've gotten much more complicated._

* * *

The Kingdom of Re-Estize and its capital, Re-Estize.

A country with a total population of 9 million, 'old' would be the best way to describe its capital. Re-Estize - the city - was a place of history, that through centuries of existence became used to its status as a city that embraced its unchanging daily life. It used to be something that could be easily understood with a simple stroll through town. Aside from few noble estates or merchant houses which were spread throughout the place, the apparent harshness of the surroundings in terms of architecture and quality of life meant that freshness or splendor one would usually associate with the capital of a nation, a place where the country's best and brightest with their wealth would accumulate, was sorely lacking.

Of course, depending on the individual, there were many ways one could interpret such a state. Some saw it as the tranquil atmosphere of a land rich with history, where the booming growth of a rising nation has long passed. Others saw a dull city that would continue to exist as it did for centuries already, not growing or advancing yet somehow staying relevant in all matters of the Kingdom and the region at large.

Recently however, the city suddenly changed. The capital's poorer neighborhoods were now crowded by refugees from the lost city of E-Rantel and many of its surrounding villages. The alleys which used to be dark and empty aside from few shady characters here and there, were now flush with tents and junk huts, in which poor refugees lived. Some of the streets which were already hard to navigate were now crawling with the old, the infirm and the weak, those who depended on begging to survive.

"I didn't think this city could become cramped to this degree." a blond woman with jet black bastard sword on her hip wondered to her companions as they tried to squeeze themselves through the smaller streets.

"The Re-Estize was always heavily populated. Though I also didn't expect so many people from E-Rantel to come here, there are many places to be other than the capital" a short girl with a bone white mask and red cloak answered while looking around.

Normally when a nation loses its territory, people of the said territory rarely have such an impact on the capital of a nation. Many would just integrate into the country that took over or resettle in the empty frontier lands somewhere else. But the situation in the Kingdom of Re-Estize, especially surrounding the loss of E-Rantel was complicated on several levels.

First issue was the status of the lost lands. Unlike the times when a different county took over, this time the cult of Undead Worshippers were the ones who attacked the city. It took a very brave, insane or desperate person to try and keep living under the rule of such an organization, where no one would protect you from any sort of abuse and horrors members of Zuranon would definitely inflict on the population. Thus, most of the surviving population fled the E-Rantel and its surroundings.

Second issue was the number of refugees who managed to reach the capital. In this world, when a hostile species takes over the area inhabited by humans, a bloodbath occurs that wipes out most of the population. It has happened before during the rampage of Demon Gods and was currently happening in the Draconic Kingdom every day. But Zuranon for whatever reason did not slaughter the survivors the Fortress City, nor did they destroy the outer villages. Thus, with only standard hazards of long-distance travel such as bandits, monsters, malnutrition and diseases harassing the refugees, the ones who arrived were only slightly fewer in numbers from those who set out.

Third issue was the status of the refugees. Most of them were commoners under the obligations to pay taxes and serve the King himself, since they were born and raised in King's personal fiefdom and lacked social mobility like merchants, craftsmen and adventurers. Thus, they felt not only entitled but also obligated to turn to the King after their homes were lost, all moving towards the capital instead of other places.

"I just hope this is the right place, it would be awkward to leave the tavern empty-handed again." The masked girl murmured.

As a famous adventurer group, it was relatively easy for these women to collect accurate information on anything within the city, especially about any interesting newcomers. However, with the sudden influx of people there was no way to track even more outstanding individuals.

The group consisting of five females approached a shady smaller establishment in the middle-class district, well off enough to keep the rabble away and cheap enough to have patrons from among the refugees. Unlike most inns that would attempt to attract the customers with open doors and cheery exterior, this building looked subdued at best and its sturdy metal doors were closed.

The interior as Blue Rose soon found out was far different from the exterior. It was easily qualified as a very private place where the customers could either sit in front of the bar counter or in the booths which were separated from each other by velvet curtains.

Blue Rose's target was sitting near the counter and was obviously drinking with several people they didn't have info on, but from the looks of them, they were also middle-class refugees all combatants of some sort.

"You are Moknach of Rainbow, right?" the masked girl opened the conversation without much preamble when they approached the bar.

The target of their search was a tall man with wide nose, narrow eyes and blond hair. He was the leader and last remaining member of the adventurer group called Rainbow. Previously rated as the Mithril level adventurer his actions and experiences during the E-Rantel Massacre prompted his promotion to the Orichalcum.

"Yup that's me." the man slurred in response "And though I'm pretty sure I know who you are, for the sake of etiquette please do join us and introduce yourselves to my companions here" he continued while gesturing to the rest of the people in front of the bar counter.

There were more than a dozen other people sitting aside from Moknach. Some of them were adventurers from Silver to Platinum ranks based on their plates with one of them still having the shine a newly minted plate would usually have. These were just few of the many Adventurers who were promoted following the life and death battle within the lost city. There were several priests and Mages Guild members who could be distinguished by their robes. The rest were an odd mix of people all wearing protective equipment of different kind, likely soldiers and mercenaries of some sort.

"My name is Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra and these are my comrades from Blue Rose: Evileye, Gagaran, Tina and Tia. We wanted to discuss something with Moknach-san here as the strongest adventurer of E-Rantel" the swordswoman and obvious leader of the group stepped in the conversation while gesturing for her companions to take seats around the bar counter.

The Silver adventurers immediately widened their eyes when they heard the introduction, but surprisingly instead of checking out the group's appearance or something else their gaze suddenly dropped to the black sword on Lakyus' hip.

The staring continued all the way until Lakyus took seat behind the counter herself, obscuring the sight of her weapon with the table. When the newbies lifted their eyes back to her face they were met with a raised eyebrow and questioning gaze from the woman.

"Ahhh, I'm sorry I'm Peter Mauk, these are my comrades Lukrut, Ninya, Dyne and Brita" the young man with smooth unremarkable face decided to answer the silent query "We named our group the Swords of Darkness since we dreamed about collecting all of them, but well we never actually seen one before today." he gestured to now amused looking Lakyus.

"Well I guess you'll have to wait before claiming Kilineiram as your own" she simply replied with equally amused tone while Gagaran simply snorted.

"My name is Borno Vichu Dale Peresz, nice to meet you Lady Aindra" one of the men took her arm and kissed it showing his status as likely a minor noble by the gesture and by paying special attention to his supposed sole social peer while all but ignoring the rest of the Blue Rose.

"You are an interesting group from very different roads of life, what brought you guys together to this pub?" previously silent Tina decided to ask ignoring the noble's attitude towards them.

"Well we all walked through the whole fight with the undead from beginning to the end" Moknach finally lowered his pint after downing the whole thing in one long gulp. "From the outer gate to the fight on the streets to the last battle near the Guild building, we were all there and stuck together during the march to the capital too." The adventurer continued sounding far more focused than he did just a moment ago, as if his memories made him sober up within moments.

"And since Moknach-kun here all but dragged me from under one of those Plague Ghouls, I've decided to act as a guide and sponsor to him and his friends while in the capital. Especially when getting drunk into oblivion sounds like such a great prospect." Borno continued with a somewhat patronizing tone, especially considering the obvious fact that he was probably the same age as his savior.

"An interesting choice of establishment, not many inns or taverns can offer this kind of service." Evileye drawled, likely eyeing one of the serving girls not that one could tell because of the mask. All the visible staff in this inn was composed of beautiful girls who were wearing a very revealing variation of maid uniform. Their movements were also very alluring and seductive to the point that every male in the bar, including members of Moknach's group kept their eyes glued to every girl that passed by. While beautiful serving staff was not out of the ordinary among the better taverns, this kind of set up somewhat broke the usual cultural norms established in the Kingdom. Add that to the covert nature of the establishment and one would start suspecting what kind of patronage the owner of the establishment has.

"Its not like we have much of a choice, there is no room in any of the places we looked into or asked the Guild about. We had to set camp in one of the back alleys yesterday just to sleep, and since there are no sleeping places here, we might have to do it again." the aforementioned Ninya, a very young magic caster who looked slightly uncomfortable with the joint told them.

"All the cheaper inns and taverns in the city are filled with merchants, craftsmen and nobles with their personal servants" Moknach decided to elaborate "everyone does the same thing I do, trying to drown in wine and beer."

"Then we are sorry to interrupt you, but we came here for a reason different than just socializing" Lakyus decided to cut to the chase "we wanted to get your eyewitness account of all the events that transpired in E-Rantel and all the creatures you've fought there."

"We all have already submitted our reports to the Guild, not to mention the fact that Stronoff-dono was there and fought all the tough monsters. Wouldn't that be sufficient?" Peter pointed out slightly confused.

"Yes, Gazef is a prodigy warrior and he gave the detailed report to the King and his Court, but he is most used to fighting humanoid enemies and might have missed the important details. As for the reports, Ainzach-dono already submitted them to examination by the Guild and the Court with his own report, but there are always details one might miss or not convey on the paper. Moknach-san here can give perception no one else can."

"I understand. Give me a few moments" the said adventurer stood up and approached the barkeep.

"See you later, Moknach-kun. Next time I'll show you guys a really good establishment, the kind you only find in the Capital" Borno called after the warrior, before turning to his cup and taking another long gulp.

* * *

"It seems that there are far more refugees in the city that was previously anticipated" a soft and beautiful voice could be heard inside an elegant room within the bowels of Valencia Palace.

Both the room and the voice belonged to Renner Theiere Chardelon Ryle Vaiself, nicknamed 'Golden Princess' by the people of Re-Estize Kingdom. With her blonde hair, pale pink lips, and gentle, deep blue eyes, Renner was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom and the whole region.

The atmosphere in the room was the one befitting a tea party, with a steaming pot, several cups and various snacks laid on an average sized wooden table, each item was proper and fitting the situation. The only issue were room's other occupants aside from the Golden Princess.

"Yes, the guards have no clue how many, but our people have rough estimates of their numbers: roughly two fifths of E-Rantel's population managed to make it to the Capital" a different feminine voice answered. It belonged to a curvy, pale skinned woman who seemed to prefer wearing white, thin clothing, though her "dress" showed off much of her skin and bust anyway. It is likely that she spent most of her time indoors and rarely saw the sun. Or maybe she simply had sickly complexion due to the experiences she previously underwent.

One could assume that her presence was not out of place within the Valencia Palace. The light dress showing off her figure, purple mascara and lipstick would make one think about a high-class prostitute. Such people would not be too mistaken as she was a prostitute once, but nowadays she was considered to be one of the most powerful people in the criminal underworld of Re-Estize Kingdom. Her name was Hilma Cygnaeus, one of the leaders of Eight Fingers. As to why such a person was even allowed into the palace, not to mention the personal chambers of a princess, well…

"And they brought plenty of undead scouts with them too, though right now we have greater concerns" a half-transparent figure looking out of the window spoke out for the first time. That figure had a somewhat distorted appearance and thus one could only see the vaguely humanoid shape with horns and a cape. The phrase immediately caught attention of the two females in the room, after all it was a blasphemy to ignore the ancient's words.

"Now the Empire is unlikely to take over E-Rantel by itself, right my lord?" Renner asked, merely to confirm her own conclusion.

"Empty city bordering the desolated Katze Plains is currently not worth whatever losses they might sustain. Unlike Re-Estize and Theocracy, Baharuth Empire has little ideological reasons to attack Zuranon, not until they make hostile movements of their own. Years of careful maneuvering destroyed utterly by a single move from a third party. There was once a joke about a pigeon landing on a chess board during the game, I feel like this situation matches it." Demon's illusion shook its head and put its arms on the windowsill. Hilma couldn't help but wonder that if the being actually stood here instead of its projection, the demon's claws would have long pierced the wood. Of course, it was not truly angry. Hilma have heard from legends what would happen if this being was angered and judging from the fact that capital was not yet turned into ash, this ancient must be merely frustrated. "Not to mention this Death Spreading Brigade, whoever's controlling both of these groups is playing the Game aggressively and yet through many proxies. I wonder if this is one of my old Rivals"

 _It would be best to try to appease it as a loyal subordinate would. The kind of subordinate you would not use to vent off some steam in one of the infernal torture chambers because they just lost one of the facilities._

"My lord, me and my peers could use our connections to force the rest of Great Nobles into supporting the King and Marquis Raeven's attack plan if you wish it." Hilma decided to call out. Not that she expected two monsters sharing the room with her to not account for such an option. Still, she preferred to fill in the silence and to remind that her and her colleagues' resources were useful to the demon. After all, useless things have a way of disappearing when the Great Game was concerned.

The situation in the Kingdom was that of an intense political infighting. The Royal Family and Six Great Nobles and their respective supporters fought for control of the country and thus, they prevented each other from actually accomplishing anything. Much of it was due to the actions of those inside this very room, but previously it had been all a part of a bigger plan. Now however, the outcome was that instead of being absorbed by the Empire, Re-Estize had a decent chance of simply collapsing on itself, separated from the Baharuth Empire by the undead lands.

"No, forcing an attack right now would just make the grass grow better from all the blood spilled. Instead, I feel like we can just use the situation at hand to our advantage. The crime has already sky rocketed, something illegal is happening on every smaller street, behind every corner. A man is stabbed and robbed of his money, boots and even clothes? An old woman suddenly found her purse and half of the recently bought groceries missing? A girl barely in her teens is trying to sell herself for a few coins? The Wrath is already rising. All these people on the streets soon will run out of whatever savings they brought and will look for any work, we could use additional bodies. Tell your little friends to start recruiting, we are starting the Phase Two."

* * *

 **A.N.: Welp I'm not dead as you can see. Actually as I told Awareness Bringer, this thing was mostly done back in April. But then life hit me with the strength of a truck and it all went down from there. But now that this filler chapter set up the pieces, next one will come much sooner.**


End file.
